I heard a Fly buzz- when I died: Plot

“I heard a Fly buzz - when I died” Overview

Theme of imminent death and what awaits in the afterlife.
Narrated from the perspective of someone on their deathbed, watching their surrounding.

In a room heavily focused with anticipation, the narrator waits for their death.
The room grows silent and the buzzing of a fly becomes noticeable.
As the narrator’s sight fails, they witness the fly buzzing before everything becomes darkness.

The Fly symbolises the intrusion of mundane elements into sacred moments. Taking over the quiet moment of death, it emphasises how death is part of the cycle of life, not a heavenly transcendental experience.
Decomposition: The speaker’s vision fading as they die directly signifies life forces are decomposing, further reinforced by the fly, which is often seen as a decomposer. The poem’s focus shifts from the idyllic death scene to the more realistic and inevitable decomposition.
Ambiguity of Afterlife: Emily Dickinson left the afterlife a mystery, making it appear an empty, dark silence, contrary to the religious belief of a heavenly paradise. The mundane fly taking over the dramatic expectancy of death reiterates the sense of nothingness after death.