*I heard a fly buzz.* (591) Emily Dickinson. How to Deconstruct.

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The poem consists of four quatrains (four-line stanzas) with rhyme scheme abcb, the “b” lines being examples of slant or inexact rhyme. The first and third lines are in iambic tetrameter¹ (four stresses), the second and fourth in iambic trimeter (three stresses), a ballad format.

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An intensely observed, focused moment, typical of Dickinson’s greatest poetry. Here she is speaking to us from beyond the grave, describing the moment of her death. The first line could not have been written by anyone but Dickinson, given its almost bizarre nature, juxtaposing the ordinary and the extraordinary. I heard a Fly buzz-, a mundane observation of no seeming significance, turned on its head by what follows, when I died. To write a poem about one’s moment of death is startling enough, but to have the memory of the moment include a buzzing fly as its focus is discomfiting, creating a sense of unease in the reader, not having a basis of expectation based on that line, a masterstroke by Dickinson. the unease is partly fostered by the contrast of the regular meter, with its alternating four and three stresses, and the slant rhyme, so slanted as to almost fall out of rhyme ( firm/room, be/fly).

There was a Stillness in the Room, thick with anticipation of her passing, like the Stillness in the Air between the fury (heaves) of two Storms.

In Stanza Two, Dickinson describes the funereal aspect of the room and the mourners, who, with eyes now dry with no further tears to to give (wrung…dry), drew audible breaths (gathering firm) as they waited for the final moment (that last Onset) when heaven (the King) entered the room (be witnessed), the final passing away. The ordinary business of death (the will: Keepsakes, Assignables) had been executed, a normal part of the process. But then, in a brilliant use of interruption, both physical and symbolic, the fly intrudes (There interposed a Fly-) right at the tipping point, with a suddenness that is shattering to the stillness, not only in its commonness compared to the gravity of the situation, but in its abruptness and incongruity: the sudden break in the line (caesura²) after a stressed syllable (-able) and a hyphen; the enjambment³ of this line to the next; the harsh consonants of interposed.

The minor chaos of the moment is heightened by the image of the blue fly fumbling in panic (uncertain, stumbling) and thus awkwardly interposing itself between the dying speaker and the death-light just becoming visible (Between the light-and me-). Then the light from the windows dimmed (failed), and finally there is oblivion: and then/ I could not see to see.

Only a consummate poet with an uncanny ability to see into the heart of things could insinuate this transcendent moment into our perception.

On a final technical note, it is worth dissecting the impact of the sound and emphasis of word-choice of the last stanza by listing each word separately, so as to hear the uncertain stumbling we share with the fly:

With

Blue-

uncertain-

stumbling

Buzz-

Between

the

llight-

and

me-

And

then

the

Windows

failed-

and

then

I

could

not

see

to

see.

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1. lines with four iambic feet-each containing one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one (ta-DUM  ta-DUM  ta-DUM  ta-DUM ). This 8-syllable pattern is often likened to a heartbeat.  ↩︎
2. an interruption or break in a line. ↩︎
3. in verse) the continuation of a sentence without a pause beyond the end of a line, ↩︎

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