EMILY DICKINSON
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Almost unknown as a poet in her lifetime,
Emily Dickinson was perhaps the most
prolific and innovative poet of the
nineteenth century. Her spare, elegant style
that incorporates hymnal metres, verbal
shocks, disjunctive punctuation and
disruptive syntax is instantly recognisable.
The poems in this handout reveal
Dickinson’s intense observations and
unflinching acceptance of the wonders of
life and the inevitability of death. Given the
dense complexity of thought and
experiences found in Dickinson’s poetry, it
is not surprising that the past 50 years have
seen an outpouring of books that attempt
to explain her work. Many critics have
attempted to explain her poems by looking
to the peculiar circumstances of her life.
Others view her work as being steeped in
the traditions of New England Puritanism,
while many more see her as reacting
against the American Transcendentalist
movement. Feminists look on her as a
victim of a patriarchal society in general
and her father in particular. Recently,
gender-based criticism has begun to
concentrate on homosexuality in her life
and writings. Of course, all this divergence
of critical opinion is a by-product of the
innovative and thought-provoking nature of
Dickinson’s poetry. If you give her poetry a
1
chance, it will change the way you look on
the world.
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
DICKINSON
There’s a certain Slant of light
There’s a certain Slant of light,
Winter Afternoons—
That oppresses, like the Heft
Of Cathedral Tunes—
Heavenly Hurt, it gives us—
We can find no scar,
But internal difference,
Where the Meanings, are—
None may teach it—Any—
’Tis the Seal Despair—
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air—
5
10
When it comes, the Landscape listens—
Shadows—hold their breath—
When it goes, ’tis like the Distance
15
On the look of Death—
‘tis like the
Distance On the
look of Death -
2
Heavenly
hurt it give
us ...
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
CONTENT
Early on in her writing career, Dickinson was heavily
influenced by the American Transcendentalist
movement, particularly with the teachings of Ralph
Waldo Emerson that sought to unite nature and God.
However, in this poem, we see a very different outlook
that at times seems diametrically opposed to
Transcendentalism. At various points in the poem,
nature appears as an alien force entirely separate from
and opposed to the speaker s sense of her own self.
Where Emerson and others put forward the idea of a
great and all-encompassing Unity , Dickinson implicitly
presents the speaker in this poem as separate from
and even hurt by the landscape. In this respect, the
poem can be read as offering us a critique of the
Transcendental notions of harmony by replacing them
with a despairing and disaffected glimpse of loneliness
and despair.
This poem opens by telling us that there is a certain type of light associated with winter
afternoons. The speaker then attempts to capture the ineffable essence of this bleak winter
light. It is a light that is likened to the oppressive sound of church bells, and in the next
stanza we learn that it causes Heavenly Hurt . Incredibly, within the opening six lines of the
first two stanzas, Dickinson has managed to synthesise a description of this light (and in the
process, her depressed state of mind) in terms of the three senses of hearing, sight and
touch. It quickly becomes apparent that this light produces a transformation in the speaker.
The poem moves almost imperceptibly from a depiction of the external landscape of a dull
Many of the
poems by
Dickinson on the
course attempt
to make
abstract ideas
concrete.
Dickinson’s Tombstone in Amhurst
3
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
the light and
her state of mind her
Dickinson
state
synthesises
of mind and the winter light
winter day to the inner
landscape of the soul.
In the second stanza, the
speaker posits the notion
that the transformation
wrought by this Hurt is a
near-religious one. It comes
from heaven and bears a
Seal [of] Despair . The use
of the word Seal may be an
allusion by the poet to the
Book of Revelation, which
speaks of a book [...] sealed
with seven seals . In the
speaker s view, it is
something that cannot be
taught. It must be
experienced for what it is:
An imperial affliction
Sent us of the Air̶
In the final stanza, the
speaker conflates the inner
and external natures of this
experience. It is something
that causes the Landscape
to listen and the Shadows
to hold their breath . The
divisions between what the
speaker is feeling and the
natural landscape have
become blurred, and as a
result, the reader is brought
4
closer to understanding the
nature of this despair. It is
something that harms and
frightens the landscape
itself. In the final lines of the
final quatrain, the landscape
holds its breath for some
revelation, yet perceives only
the look of Death .
2. Stylistic Features
In this, one of the very finest
of her poems, Emily
Dickinson has created a
metaphor in which feeling
and abstraction become
inseparable.
This
unforgettable metaphor
embodies the notion that
changes in the natural or
external world often parallel
spiritual changes in the
internal world. The poem is
typical of Dickinson s poetry
in general in that it
concentrates on the effect
on the speaker of the
experience that she is
highlighting.
In so many of her poems,
Dickinson puts forward the
notion that the landscape
has the power to affect the
human psyche. Although
Dickinson was deeply
influenced by the American
Transcendental movement
and in particular by writers
such as Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Henry David
Thoreau and Walt Whitman,
she does differ from them in
a number of key respects.
These writers believed
contact with nature to be a
largely positive experience
that had the ability to
transport human beings
beyond the here and now. In
Dickinson s view of the
world, these encounters and
the changes experienced as
a result of them were not
always pleasant or positive.
In this poem, for example,
the speaker has been hurt
and oppressed enough by
this Slant of light so as to
feel utterly lost and
desperate. She experiences
the fading of the light with a
sense of isolation,
estrangement
and
separation that one would
normally associate with
death. n attempting to
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
the light is likened
to the ‘Heft of |
Cathedral Tunes’
convey the experience that
is induced by this winter
light, the poet employs a
range of complex language
devices. In the first stanza,
Dickinson relies on a
synaesthetic simile. The
winter light, which is
obviously a purely visual
image, is likened to the Heft
¦ Of Cathedral Tunes . Here,
the weighty sounds of a
cathedral carillon convey to
the reader the full burden of
the speaker s despair. The
use of the word Heft
complicates the simile even
further by suggesting not
only the metaphorical weight
of this winter light, but also a
tactile sense of the
oppression that it
engenders. Thus, in one
short line the poet suggests
that the light is oppressive
both physically and
metaphysically. Furthermore,
such
synaesthetic
associations, which are a
common stylistic feature of
Dickinson s poetry in general,
break down the boundaries
between the senses.
Consequently, the confusion
5
experienced by the speaker
is mirrored in the poem s
language. Interestingly, the
twentieth-century poet
T.S. Eliot used a similar
technique, which he dubbed
the objective correlative .
The critic Lois Cuddy has
demonstrated that many of
Dickinson s idiosyncratic
constructions were
influenced by her study of
Latin. Just as a homiletic
style provided the
foundation for Dickinson s
poetic variations, Latinate
syntax and grammatical
structures (in particular
parenthesis and ellipsis)
allowed her to create highly
individual metres and
rhymes. There s a certain
Slant of light
also
demonstrates an exquisite
use of sound devices that
are matched by
disjunctive grammar and
intricate levels of poetic
diction.
As with nearly every poem
by Dickinson on the course,
this poem embodies a
variation hymnal metre.
Growing up with volumes of
Isaac Watt s hymns in her
home, Dickinson adapted
homiletic lyric conventions to
her own use. Here the poet
employs alternating lines of
seven and five syllables
where tetrameters are
followed by trimeters.
Trochees are metric units of
two syllables, where the first
syllable is stressed and the
second is left unstressed. In
the poem, Dickinson
arranges these in much the
same manner as one would
expect of a church hymn. If
we look at the first two lines
of this poem, we can see
how intricate the metrical
arrangement is:
There s a certain Slant of
light, Winter Afternoons̶
The odd foot (metric unit) of
each line ends in a
monometer (a metric unit
with only one stressed
syllable). While the poem is
not entirely arranged in this
fashion, there are enough
instances of this metrical
pattern to force the reader
to recognise the association
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
There is a certain
slant of light
with church hymns. Of
course, this is most
interesting given the fact
that heaven is associated
with Despair and affliction .
In a very real sense, the poet
is using the form and metre
of religious devotional hymns
to undermine their message.
Some critics, including the
poet Adrienne Rich, feel that
this subversion of prevailing
attitudes is best exemplified
in Dickinson s unusual and
thought- provoking
metaphors. Given the
prevailing orthodoxy of the
day, Rich argues that
Dickinson was forced to
retranslate her own
unorthodox, subversive,
sometimes volcanic
propensities into a dialect
called metaphor: her native
language. Dickinson s
metaphors expressed all her
emotions in her unique
manner.
Furthermore, Dickinson relies
heavily on both exact rhyme
and slant rhyme. In her
poetry, Dickinson frequently
employs slant rhyme or near
rhyme when she wishes to
6
disparage a traditional value
or idea. Notice how the poet
uses exact rhyme in the first
and third lines of each
quatrain ( light rhymes with
Heft , us half rhymes with
difference , and listens with
Distance ), whereas she
relies on the more
conventional exact rhyme to
end the second and fourth
lines ( Afternoons / Tunes ,
scar / are , Despair / Air and
breath / Death ). The poem
provides us with many other
examples of Dickinson s
style. In particular, capitalised
words and dashes are used
to end most of the lines.
Capitalised words emphasise
the importance of key ideas
within the poem. The dashes
that punctuate nearly every
line of There s a certain
Slant of light not only
accentuate the rhythm of
the poem, but also provide
the reader with a sense of
openness and ambiguity not
afforded by the full stop.
Perhaps the most obvious ‒
yet also the most difficult ‒
to categorise is Dickinson s
unusual use of pathetic
fallacy. As the boundaries
between the inner and
external worlds become
weakened, the poet s
emotions are reflected by
the landscape. When
Dickinson uses nature
imagery in this way, she is
appropriating it, as Joanne
Feit Diehl says, for the
aggrandizement of the
mind . In this sense, Feit
Diehl goes on to point out
that the natural phenomenon
becomes the self as the
division between identity and
the scene described
dissolves . The poem also
employs personification,
alliteration, assonance and
sibilant s sounds to convey
the sense of menacing dread
that this light induces. It is
also possible to view this
poem as challenging the
concept of a Christian
God as a benevolent force in
the world. Most critics agree
that while the poem does
not mention God, it
nevertheless undercuts
God s supreme authority.
Even as early as her time at
the evangelical Mount
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
THIS IS A
THOUGHT
PROVOKING
POEM
Holyoke Seminary, Dickinson saw herself as an
outsider resisting and challenging the religious revivals
of her time:
How lonely this world is
growing, something so desolate
creeps over the spirit and we
don’t know it’s [sic] name, and
it won’t go away, either Heaven
is seeming greater, or Earth a
great deal more small, or God is
more ‘Our Father,’ and we feel
our need increased. Christ is
calling everyone here, all my
companions have answered [...]
I can’t tell you what they have found, but they think it
is something precious. I wonder if it is? How strange
is this sanctification, that works such a marvellous
change, that sows in such corruption, and rises in
golden glory, that brings Christ down, and shews
him, and lets him select his friends!
The dash is
an integral
aspect of
Dickinson’s
poetry...
The room where Dickinson spent most of her time....
7
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
I FELT A
FUNERAL
IN MY
BRAIN
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain,
And Mourners to and fro
Kept treading̶treading̶till it seemed
That Sense was breaking through̶
And when they all were seated,
A Service, like a Drum̶
Kept beating̶beating̶till I thought
My Mind was going numb̶
And then I heard them lift a Box
And creak across my Soul
With those same Boots of Lead, again,
Then Space̶began to toll,
As all the Heavens were a Bell,
And Being, but an Ear,
And I, and Silence, some strange Race
Wrecked, solitary, here̶
And
And
And
And
then a Plank in Reason, broke,
I dropped down, and down̶
hit a World, at every plunge,
Finished knowing̶then̶
5
10
15
20
Dickinson only
published a
half dozen
poems in her
lifetime...
The house where Emily spent most of her Adult life
8
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
content
I felt a Funeral, in my Brain
was first published in 1896.
However, as with most of the
poems by Dickinson on the
course, the exact date of its
composition remains
unknown. The poem is
typical of Dickinson s work in
that it draws on a familiar
enough experience ‒ a
funeral procession ‒ to
describe an unfamiliar world
of mental anguish.
It is possible to apply several
readings to the poem. Some
readers are convinced that
the poem s loose narrative
depicts a funeral through the
eyes of the dead person,
others look on the poem as
providing us with an account
of the descent into despair,
while many readers believe
that I felt a Funeral, in my
Brain presents us with a
convincing depiction of
mental illness. This genuinely
terrifying poem for both the
speaker and the reader
opens with an unusual and
arresting line. The speaker
informs us that she felt a
Funeral, in [her] brain . In the
next two lines, the mind-
9
numbing loss of sensation
that accompanies the
speaker s mental anguish is
likened to mourners
treading to and fro . The
repetition of treading
emphasises the visceral
effect of this mental
experience on the speaker.
For a moment in the final line
of the first quatrain, it
appears that despite the
awfulness of the experience,
sense might break through.
In the next stanza, the poet
continues to draw on the
imagery of the funeral. We
are now inside the church
and the congregation is
s e a t e d . H o w e v e r, t h e
reader s expectations are
abruptly challenged when we
hear that this funeral service
is like a Drum that Kept
beating [and] beating to the
point that her mind felt as if
it was going numb .
In the third stanza, we move
to the moment when the
coffin is raised. Yet again,
Dickinson plays on our
collective dread of death so
as to emphasise the full
nature of her inner torment.
In some truly chilling lines of
poetry, she tells us that
Boots of Lead creaked
across her soul. The intensity
of these lines is astonishing.
For most of this lyric, the
poet makes use of auditory
imagery in order to convey
the full extent of this mental
breakdown. This reaches its
fullest expression in the
penultimate stanza, where
Dickinson presents us with a
synaesthetic rendering of
space itself appearing to toll.
At this point in the poem, the
speaker is reduced to an ear
and nothing exists in her
world except for a surreal
and somewhat disturbing bell
that tolls.
In the final lines of the fourth
stanza, the poet is reduced
to an isolated figure who
feels Wrecked, solitary,
here . In the final quatrain,
reason appears to have
broken down completely. At
the same time, the mind of
the speaker embraces an allconsuming despair that sees
her dropping down, and
down
into what is
presumably nothingness,
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
Dickinson
non-existence or the loss of
consciousness.
The final lines of the poem
are perplexing and open to
at least two completely
different readings. The
speaker informs us that at
the end of this process she
Finished knowing̶then .
Could this mean that at
the end of the process, the
speaker has experienced
the complete loss of all
thought and knowledge, that
she has literally finished
knowing? Or alternatively,
could the speaker be
suggesting that the result of
this
journey
is
a
breakthrough of sorts? In
this reading of the poem, the
broken Plank in Reason that
she speaks of causes the
speaker to finish her journey
by understanding, or as she
puts it, knowing . Whatever
reading you choose
to accept, this is certainly a
thought-provoking poem.
Stylistic Features
10
Speaking of this poem, the
critic Paula Bennet has said:
In a series of poems
beginning in the early 1860s,
Dickinson describes what
might best be called her fall
from metaphysical grace and
the epistemological impact
this event had upon her. In
these poems, Dickinson s
confrontation with the abyss
becomes the central
metaphor for her vision of a
world
from
which
transcendent meaning has
been withdrawn and in which,
therefore, the speaker is free
to reach any conclusion she
wishes or, indeed, to reach
no conclusion at all.
Like many of the other
poems by Dickinson on the
course, I felt a Funeral, in my
Brain explores the workings
of the human mind in
anguish. Here the poet
attempts to replicate the
stages of what is presumably
a mental breakdown through
the metaphor of a funeral.
The poet imagistically draws
on the common rituals of the
funeral to trace the stages in
the speaker s descent into
some kind of despair and
perhaps even madness.
H o w e v e r, t h e o b s e r v a n t
reader will quickly notice that
even the concrete image of
the funeral is usurped by the
speaker in order to
emphasise her growing
sense of confusion. In
particular, it is disconcerting
that the mourners seem to
be walking without direction.
This aimless funeral
procession is literally going
nowhere as it walks to and
fro .
Furthermore, in the second
stanza, which presents us
with the funeral service,
there are a number of
disturbing omissions. All
Congregationalist funerals
follow the same pattern, and
few readers will have
difficulty in recognising this:
to begin with, the mourners
usually pay their respects
and there is normally a
church service, which is then
followed by the removal to a
graveyard and the eventual
burial, and finally a bell tolls
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
as friends and family depart the graveside. None of these are present in this poem. We learn
absolutely nothing about the life of the deceased and the normal conventions of the funeral
are not followed. Cynthia Griffen Wolfe feels that the poem expresses a kind of horror,
where instead of confirming the importance of certain particular events and values, instead
of revealing the true feelings of people for a specific soul now deceased, it suggests that
nothing and no one can have enduring value .
In order to convey the sense of despair that the speaker feels, Dickinson relies
heavily on auditory imagery coupled with an impressive series of sound devices.
This begins with the repetition of the verb treading to suggest the relentlessness of the
experience she is undergoing. The speaker continues to stress the intensity of the
experience through a series of strong verbs associated with sound. In particular, verbs such
as creak and beating capture the frightening sense of oppression that the speaker
experiences, prolonged by the poet s use of the alliterative b sound that runs throughout
the poem with ritualistic regularity. By emphasising such words as Brain , beating , Box ,
Boots , Bell , Being and broke , the poet captures the mind-numbing, oppressive monotony
of her experience.
This is reinforced by the inclusion of a disconcerting simile in the second stanza, where the
service is likened to a beating Drum . The tension is maintained until we reach the final two
stanzas and the climax of the poem. Here Dickinson employs synaesthesia in her description
of Space beginning to toll. The synaesthetic association of space with sound creates a
surreal impression of the speaker s sense of dislocation and fear, which is stressed by the
sound of a breaking plank. I felt a Funeral, in my Brain ends with silence. Of course, this
silence is the unthinkable enactment of its fundamental horror, being buried alive. Even the
rhyming scheme plays a role as the poet catalogues this movement towards total despair.
Notice how the exact rhymes of the first four quatrains (even words such as fro and
through are rhymed exactly when read with a nineteenth-century Massachusetts accent)
And I
dropped
down,
and down
The Scream by Norwegian Artist Edvard Munch
11
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
CAUSE AND
EFFECT
BECOME
SEPARATED
yield to the slant rhymes of the final stanza. In this
manner, the movement from consciousness to
incoherence is echoed in the rhyme of the poem.
Finally, it is important to remember that this poem
does not attempt to explain the cause of the speaker s
state of mind. This lack of cause and effect is a
common feature of Dickinson s poems. It would seem
that the poet is more interested in examining the
effect on her consciousness of this experience.
Dickinson faces this challenge of conveying her mental anguish in many of her poems,
among them one in which she attempts to convey the sensation of memory loss or even the
loss of one s rational powers:
I Felt a Cleaving in my Mind̶ As if my Brain had split̶ I tried to match it̶Seam by Seam̶
But could not make them fit. The thought behind, I strove to join Unto the thought before̶
But Sequence raveled out of Sound Like Balls̶upon a Floor. This is very similar to I felt a
Funeral, in my Brain in that it focuses on the effects, not the cause of the experience.
And
finished
knowing
- then this poem attempts to capture the anguish of a tortured mind...
12
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
glossary
HOPE IS A THING
WITH FEATHERS
Hope is the thing with feathers̶
That perches in the soul̶
And sings the tune without the words̶
And never stops̶at all̶
And sweetest̶in the Gale̶is heard̶
And sore must be the storm̶
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm̶
I ve heard it in the chillest land̶
And on the strangest Sea ̶
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb̶of Me.
13
5
Hope is the thing with
feathers is the sixth part of a
much larger poem entitled
Life . In the poem, Dickinson
examines the abstract
concept of hope. Despite her
astonishing output, fewer
than a dozen of Dickinson s
poems were published during
her lifetime. Since 1890,
Dickinson has remained
continuously in print. Her
work was discovered by her
younger sister, Lavinia, who
chanced upon her collection
of almost 1,800 poems.
However, it wasn t until the
1955 publication of
Dickinson s Complete Poems
by Thomas H. Johnson that a
wider readership was
afforded the opportunity to
read her poems as she
intended them to be read.
Prior to that publication, her
poetry was heavily edited and
altered from the original
manuscript versions.
2
perches ‒ rests or
alights.
7
abash ‒ deflate or
humiliate.
9
chillest ‒ coldest.
11 Extremity ‒ an extreme
condition, such as
misfortune.
10
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
Commentaries
This short poem opens with
an attempt to categorise
hope that recalls familiar
dictionary definitions. We are
told that Hope is the thing
with feathers . In the
next line, the metaphorical
association of hope with a
bird is continued. The
speaker informs us that
hope perches (as a bird
would) in the soul , where it
sings an unending and
wordless song. In the next
quatrain, the speaker
suggests that hope is
sweetest when it is needed
most. In fact, such is the
strength of hope to keep so
many warm and withstand
even the strongest gale that
it would take a storm of
terrifying intensity to abash
this little Bird . In the final
stanza, the speaker attempts
to outline the personal
nature of her relationship
with hope, telling us that she
has heard the bird of hope
in the chillest land̶ ¦ And
on the strangest Sea , but
never, no matter how
extreme the conditions, did
14
hope ever ask for a single
crumb from her.
Stylistic Features
This short celebration of
hope shares a number of
stylistic features with many
of the other poems by
Dickinson on the course. To
begin, the poem is typical of
Dickinson s work in general
in that it attempts to render
the abstract palpable. By
likening hope to a feather or
a bird, the poet manages to
capture some
of the innate qualities of
hope. Like a feather, hope
has the ability to transcend
the earthly realities of a
situation. Much like the
feathers on a bird, hope
insulates us from some of
the harsher realities of life.
By likening hope to a bird s
song without words,
Dickinson suggests the
universality of hope. If this
song were confined to a
particular language, this
would limit the experience to
a particular time and culture.
Instead, she suggests that
hope is common to all
people and all times.
However, the poem does not
seek to ignore the harsher
realities of life that
necessitate hope. The use of
a strong muscular verb such
as abash , for instance, to
describe the storm s effect
on the bird, jerks the reader
back to the reality behind
the beautiful metaphor in the
first two stanzas.
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
STYLISTIC
FEATURES
this simple, metaphorical description of hope as a bird
singing in the soul is another example of the poet s
homiletic style (i.e. like a homily or sermon). Dickinson s
poetry is heavily influenced by psalms and religious
hymns. In particular, the poem s rhythm reflects
aspects of devotional hymns that Dickinson would
have heard as a child. Like most of her poems, Hope
is a thing with feathers employs iambic trimeter that
often expands to include an additional fourth stress at
the end of the line:
And sings the tune without the words̶
While the stanzas rhyme in a loose pattern, the poet
makes use of carryover rhymes throughout all three
quatrains. Notice how words in the first stanza
rhymes with heard and Bird in the next quatrain;
similarly, Extremity is rhymed with Sea and Me in
the third stanza. This enhances the musical effect of
the poem and creates a light, airy feeling that the speaker associates with hope. This
musical sense of balance and harmony is further reinforced through the use of
anaphora .The repetition of And and That , together with the inclusion of the alliterative s ,
enhance the poem s overall musical quality.
anaphora
reinforces
the sense
of balance
and
harmony...
hope is a thing with features that perches in the soul
15
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
I HEARD
A FLY
BUZZ
WHEN I
DIED
I heard a Fly buzz̶when I died̶
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air̶
Between the Heaves of Storm̶
The Eyes around̶had wrung them dry
̶
5
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset̶when the King
Be witnessed̶in the Room̶
I willed my Keepsakes̶Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable̶and then it was
There interposed a Fly̶
With Blue̶uncertain stumbling Buzz̶
Between the light̶and me̶
And then the Windows failed̶and then
I could not see to see̶
10
15
and then
I could not see
to see -
I heard a fly buzz when I died
16
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
CONTENT
This thought-provoking and even disturbing poem opens
in an unusual and arresting manner. The speaker tells us
that at the moment of death, she heard a Fly buzz . In
typical Dickinson fashion, the poet attempts to make the
abstract concrete through the association of two
dissimilar qualities, equating the heavy, oppressive feeling
associated with her death bed to the Stillness in the Air ¦
Between the Heaves of Storm . In the second stanza, the
poet focuses on the friends and relations who have
presumably gathered to view the last moments of the
speaker s life. American attitudes towards death in the
nineteenth century remained largely unaltered from
previous centuries: death was an uncomfortable and
undeniable reality of daily life. By 1850, when Emily was
just 20 years old, life expectancy for an American adult
had reached just 39 years of age. It is no wonder, then,
that Dickinson puzzled and pondered over death in so
many of her poems. Over the span of a few short months
in 1844 when the poet was just 13 years old, an
unusually large number of deaths were recorded
amongst friends and family of the Dickinsons ,
culminating with the death of her friend and cousin,
Sophia Holland. The young poet was permitted to keep
vigil at her bedside. As Sophia neared death, Dickinson
was mesmerised by the otherworldly smile that animated
her friend s features. Many years later, the poet revealed
how much this experience had marked her. She claimed it
had sent her into a deep depression that required a long
stay with her Aunt Lavina in Boston.
Glossary
Written in 1862, I heard a Fly buzz̶
when I died was first published in Emily
Dickinson s third posthumous collection
of poetry, Poems by Emily Dickinson, in
1896. The poem has been an object of
much critical debate. In fact, since the
poem s publication, there has been wide
critical divergence over the symbolic
function of the fly as a symbol and its
relationship to the death of the poem s
presumptive speaker.
4
Heaves ‒ this word has many
meanings. It can mean force or strenuous
effort. In colloquial English, the word is
associated with an attack of vomiting.
7
Onset ‒ the beginning of
something, particularly something difficult
or unpleasant. The word can also mean
the initial attack in a military conflict.
9
Keepsakes ‒ mementos or small
items or gifts kept because they bring
memories to mind.
12 interposed ‒ to place yourself or
Here in this poem, she reflects a curiously nineteenthcentury attitude towards death, when it was widely
believed that the final moments of life provided a glimpse
as to the destination of the dying person s soul. It is this
sense of expectation that Dickinson alludes to when she
speaks of the Breaths of the onlookers gathering firm .
In a surreal touch, those keeping this bedside vigil are
reduced to body parts. They become Eyes and Breaths
17
something else between two people or
two different objects.
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
Content
and we learn absolutely
nothing
of
their
experience.connection to the
s p e a k e r. I n w h a t i s
presumably an allusion to
Christ the King, in the final
two lines of the stanza, we
learn that those present wait
in eager anticipation of the
coming of the King:
For that last Onset̶
when the King Be witnessed
̶in the Room̶
In the next quatrain, the poet
prepares for the final
moment of life by assigning
away everything that one
expects to leave behind at
the point of death:
stumbling fly must be
viewed as the antithesis of
the surety and purpose
afforded by a belief in an
afterlife. As the poem draws
to a close, the darkness and
shadows begin to close in on
the speaker. The final line of
the poem captures a sense
of finality that only death can
bring:
I could not see to see̶
Stylistic Features
From fifteenth-century
chapbooks right through to
the more sophisticated
poetry. Traditionally, such
poems describe the last
moments of the dead or
dying from the perspective
of the living. However, in this
poem, Dickinson subverts
the genre and presents the
reader with a disturbing
account of death from the
perspective of the dying
person. In the poem, all our
expectations concerning the
final moments of life are
undermined.
This process begins with the
disturbing opening line,
which shocks the reader into
contemplating the full reality
of the speaker s death:
I heard a Fly buzz̶when I
died̶
seventeenth-century works
I willed my Keepsakes̶
Signed away What portion of
me be Assignable [...]
This is followed by a
troubling revelation. Instead
of the arrival of Christ or
indeed any sign of salvation,
the speaker is greeted by
the buzzing of a fly. This
Blue , uncertain and
18
such as Jeremy Taylor s Holy
Dying, there has been along
tradition in Western
European literature that has
centred on the notion of the
good death. This lyrical
poem, along with many
others by Emily Dickinson,
belongs to a sub-genre of
poetry known as mortuary
This is one of Emily
Dickinson s finest opening
lines. It effectively juxtaposes
the seemingly
inconsequential Fly with the
momentous moment of
death. In fact, the movement
from one to the other is so
rapid that the reader is left
reeling. The inclusion of the
two dashes in this line
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
stylistic features
further disorientates and
confuses us. Notice how the
dashes somehow diminish
the importance of what is
being said here. It is as if the
speaker is recounting the
moment of her death in an
offhand manner that is
strangely removed from the
gravity of the experience
being described. The
predominance of the
personal pronoun I gives
the poem a curiously
voyeuristic appeal that is
difficult to ignore. In the
course of the poem, the poet
vividly describes the
movement away from the
conscious, living world
towards the finality of death.
As the light slowly fades and
the presences in the room
become dissociated and
disembodied, the reader is
made to experience a sense
of tense expectation. It is a
characteristic feature of
Dickinson s poetry that the
abstract is made concrete
through unusual
associations. Here in this
poem, in order to create
such a sense of expectation,
19
the poet employs a simile
that likens the heavy stillness
in the room to the calm
Between the Heaves of
Storm . However, what is so
unsettling about this poem is
the fact that this sense of
expectation is never
rewarded. The expected
arrival of the King and its
implied promise of salvation
is interrupted by a mere Fly .
In this manner, Dickinson
raises some unsettling
questions about death. The
fly, of course, has frequently
been associated with death.
Presumably, Dickinson is
referring to the common
blue bottle fly, a species of
fly that frequently lays its
eggs in decaying meat. This
uncomfortable reality about
the fly forces the reader to
consider the physical reality
of death. Furthermore, the
fly has associations with evil.
In Colin de Plancy s
Dictionnaire Infernal, first
published in 1862,
Beelzebub, the Lord of the
Flies and one of the chief
devils in hell, is depicted as a
blue bottle. Here in
Dickinson s poem, the
Fly (notice the capital letter)
is made to interpose
Between the light and the
speaker and as a result she
could not see to see . The
buzzing of the fly completely
absorbs the speaker s
perception and
consciousness. In order to
convey fully the presence of
the fly in the room, the
reader relies on complex
language devices. In
particular, alliteration and
synaesthesia render the
presence of the fly a visceral
one for the reader. The
colour blue is made to buzz
and the repetition of b and
s sounds creates a random
and disoriented feeling to
the fly s movement that
reinforces the sense of
meaninglessness running
throughout the poem.
Consequently, the image of
the fly forces the reader to
consider the possibility of a
malevolent or at best
meaningless afterlife that
results in decay. I heard a
Fly buzz̶when I died relies
heavily on a formal metric
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010
stylistic features
pattern: trimeter and iambic
tetrameter lines with four
stresses in the first and third
lines of each stanza.
Dickinson normally relies on
this hymnal metre when she
is at her most formal.
However, here the rhythmic
insertion of the long dash
interrupts the metre and
contributes to the sense of
uncertainty as the fly
stumbles aimlessly around
the room. By employing a
formal hymnal metre that
one would associate with a
church service only to
interrupt it, Dickinson further
disorientates the reader. It is
as if she is saying that in the
face of death, nothing, not
even the religious and social
formalities of the funeral
service, has meaning.
Interestingly, the rhyming
scheme also mirrors the
thematic and metric
progression of the poem. All
the rhymes leading up to the
final quatrain are halfrhymes ( Room / Storm ,
firm / Room , be / Fly ), while
the only full or exact rhyme
occurs in the last three lines:
20
Between the light̶and me̶
And the Windows failed̶
and then I could not see to
see̶
This builds tension and
suggests that a sense of
completion is only achieved
with the death of the
speaker. However, this sense
of completion is not
matched by any revelation,
yet the speaker s
consciousness remains. Her
voice speaks to us, as it
were, from beyond the
grave. Yet all that voice is
silenced the instant its
senses cease to function.
Precisely at the moment we
need to hear from the
speaker the most, we are left
with nothing but a series of
disturbing questions: Who is
the King? Is it Jesus Christ
or Death itself? More
worryingly, we are faced with
the possibility that this King
may be something deeply
disturbing, like the Lord of
the Flies or Beelzebub. In the
words of Terry Heller:
The fly ushers the poet
across the threshold
suggested by its Blue̶
uncertain stumbling Buzz.
The fly points the way, but
the living cannot interpret its
buzz, and her voice stops.
Finally, while the death that
occurs in this poem is
presented as being painless,
the vision of that death is a
horrifyingly empty one. This
is a truly fascinating,
thought- provoking and
unsettling piece of writing.
Cian Hogan English Notes © 2010