Journal 28

Emily Dickinson's poem "I heard a fly Buzz When I Died" is what my journal topic is about. Emily Dickinson lived by a cemetery. She wrote about love, nature, and death. She believed that death was a horrible thing that involved a lot of suffering. In this particular poem, I think that she believed that the fly was apart of the journey of death. The fly was just waiting for the character to die off so it could feast on it. The fly interrupts the end of the Emily Dickinson's death and this is tragic. The cemetery is a peaceful place that is quiet and that accepts death. She wants death to be peaceful and quiet, but instead she gets her death interrupted by a fly.The fly could interrupt the movement of the soul and send her down and possibly not allow her into heaven. The fly interrupted her peaceful death. Emily Dickinson's narrator in this poem eventually does fall into the black abyss of death. She said that she "could not see to see". I think this line means that she is dead and can no longer even imagine basic functions, let alone do them. If I were dying, I would not want any interruptions. I would want death to be a peaceful thing. I would not want any flies swarming around bothering me, I would want my family around and helping me get through the horrible time. I would hope death would not be painful. The fly would be a big distraction. It could symbolize the distraction of the reason for life. I think that the Emily Dickinson had distractions in her life that effected what she wanted to do with her life. She may have had her own goals for life but got distracted by things that society does. The fly represents everything in her life that went wrong. She has to be bothered by it one more time before she dies. I think that the fly represents everyone's burdens in life.