I heard a Fly buzz when I died
Katelynn Zeisig
Mrs. Harmon
AP English
March 2, 2015 “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” Waiting for death to come, silence in the room. Emily Dickinson wrote the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” about a speaker describing the actual moment of death.
Dickinson uses onomatopoeia, repetition and point of view to contribute to the meaning of the poem. The first onomatopoeia we get in Dickinson's poem is of the pesty fly. We, the reader, do not see the fly but we hear the fly with Dickinson's choice of words. The word, “buzz” describes the noise the fly is making, and also the sound of the word initiates the sound of the fly. Building an even stronger image of the fly Dickinson says “BlueUncertainstumbling”
(Dickinson, 13). Dickinson dropping a few words in this line makes, us, the reader hear and see an uncertain little blue fly buzzing all around a room. Also, “Between the Heaves of
Storm” (Dickinson, 4) has some onomatopoeic quality because Dickinson did not say,
“Between the Storm” but she did say, “Between the Heaves of the Storm”. The word, “Heaves means, “lift, or haul, a heavy thing” making us, the reader, once read between the lines, hear/see a heavy thunder storm. Contributing to the meaning of the poem the onomatopoeias
Dickinson used, makes the reader feel and get a better understanding of the final minutes of the speaker.
Throughout the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” Dickinson repeats the words,
“and then … and then … and then …” (Dickinson, 11, 15). When reading the poem the reader may not caught it at first, but once the reader reads the fine detail theres a bigger picture. The repetition Dickinson uses symbolizes the relentless and unstoppable process of death. The repetition contributes to the meaning of the poem because the worlds “And then” together lead on creating and unstoppable path, just like the path of death.
“I heard a Fly buzz when I died” From the title its safe to say the speaker is a
Mrs. Harmon
AP English
March 2, 2015 “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” Waiting for death to come, silence in the room. Emily Dickinson wrote the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” about a speaker describing the actual moment of death.
Dickinson uses onomatopoeia, repetition and point of view to contribute to the meaning of the poem. The first onomatopoeia we get in Dickinson's poem is of the pesty fly. We, the reader, do not see the fly but we hear the fly with Dickinson's choice of words. The word, “buzz” describes the noise the fly is making, and also the sound of the word initiates the sound of the fly. Building an even stronger image of the fly Dickinson says “BlueUncertainstumbling”
(Dickinson, 13). Dickinson dropping a few words in this line makes, us, the reader hear and see an uncertain little blue fly buzzing all around a room. Also, “Between the Heaves of
Storm” (Dickinson, 4) has some onomatopoeic quality because Dickinson did not say,
“Between the Storm” but she did say, “Between the Heaves of the Storm”. The word, “Heaves means, “lift, or haul, a heavy thing” making us, the reader, once read between the lines, hear/see a heavy thunder storm. Contributing to the meaning of the poem the onomatopoeias
Dickinson used, makes the reader feel and get a better understanding of the final minutes of the speaker.
Throughout the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” Dickinson repeats the words,
“and then … and then … and then …” (Dickinson, 11, 15). When reading the poem the reader may not caught it at first, but once the reader reads the fine detail theres a bigger picture. The repetition Dickinson uses symbolizes the relentless and unstoppable process of death. The repetition contributes to the meaning of the poem because the worlds “And then” together lead on creating and unstoppable path, just like the path of death.
“I heard a Fly buzz when I died” From the title its safe to say the speaker is a