the fly.

I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –

The Stillness in the Room

Was like the Stillness in the Air –

Between the Heaves of Storm –

The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –

And Breaths were gathering firm

For that last Onset – when the King

Be witnessed – in the Room –

I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away

What portion of me be

Assignable – and then it was

There interposed a Fly –

With Blue – uncertain – stumbling Buzz –

Between the light – and me –

And then the Windows failed – and then

I could not see to see –

In this calm yet horrific portrayal of death, Dickinson focuses on the fly as the central image. As the speaker dies, all the witnesses are silent. The speaker compares this silence to the stillness between "Heaves" of a storm, as if she is psychologically within her own stages of a storm, the rare calm between two extreme events. The "Stillness of the Room" is broken only by the "stumbling Buzz" of the fly, creating a sense of anticipation and anxiety for what will come next. Ironically, the fly is mentioned more than "the King" (God?), representing the harsh realities that accompany death: those of rot and decay. The fly represents death without any spiritual implications or hopes for eternal life. At the same time, though, the fly is the only form of life within the poem's entirety; as her body dies, still the fly continues to buzz. This may be a subtle implication on Dickinson's part regarding the uncertainty of human mortality.