Choosing a Composition by Emily Dickinson - Research Paper Example

? Interpretation of the Story: I Heard a Fly Buzz When I died Outline I. Introduction A. Cultural Context emphasizes animetaphorical usage. B. Historical Context bears the aspects related to nineteenth century style of writing and exhibited poetic forms. II. Themes A. Mortality 1. Feelings from a common man’s point of view just before death. 2. Feelings from the viewpoint of an individual undergoing the process of death. 3. Feelings of afterlife. 4. Feelings associated with a person who is already dead. B. Family C. Man and the Natural World 1. A Buzzing Fly epitomizes the elements of the natural world. 2. A Dying person figuratively is used as a symbol of humankind. D. Essence of Spirituality 1. Spiritual elements relating to the world beyond. 2. Reality and eternity. III. Interpretation A. Sensibility 1. Religious assertions and despair through the poetic transitions. 2. Remarkable Interpolation elements surrounding the poetic verse. B. Rhyme 1. Use of Slant Rhymes. C. Rhyme Scheme 1. Syntactical Punctuational Practice by the construction of the dash’d off phrases. 2. Justification of individually isolated phrases. D. Meter 1. Iambic Meter has been used as Iambic trimeter and Iambic tetrameter. IV. Conclusion V. References The reason for choosing a composition by Emily Dickinson is because death is one aspect that has received a significant emphasis in the poem. “I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died” is my topic of discussion for this assignment where it speaks about some of the vital unanswered questions that come to mind in deep introspection. The subject in itself is curious on one hand and vague on the other. Death is a process of transition to a brighter happier life from a common man’s point of view. This poem depicts the view of mourners, as well as the person undergoing the process of death from the common man’s point of view. Dickinson's poem is told in the past tense by a person who has already died. Emily Dickinson uses past and present tense words together, which indicate a transition between life and death. The poem is ironic and unique because there is a concern with a menial matter such as a buzzing fly at the final moment of life. People always have mixed perceptions, thoughts, or beliefs about death. When people think about death, they might experience fear or anxiety as to what the afterlife holds for them. Writers in various time spans throughout history have used diverse symbols to characterize death itself, as well as the different feelings in the direction of dying and what occurs after death. Death is a part of life no matter what personal belief one has, and according to Emily Dickinson, life may continue after death. The poem has in it an intrinsic sense on evaluation of death. In real life it is not easy to experience the brief moment of death, neither is it easy to ascertain whether this piece of poetry is an exact analysis of the moments before death. There is a subtle transition in the poem in which death is perceived as a poetic strategy to figure out death as the death of the body and the death of the soul. This transition has made it more difficult to identify the exact moment of death. Dickinson leaves it open for the readers to seek understanding of whether death happens at the beginning of the poem or at the end; or if the poem is written in the context of describing the entire process of death. Just as in real life, we come across such instances. Often it so happens that mourners are not able to decide when the point of death has actually come. Therefore, the author leaves this understanding onto the readers to decide upon (Dauben, 7). In this respect, it can be said that death is a difficult aspect to define and so is life. We are not so conscious of anything else than living, and therefore the limitation of our mind lies in the particular aspect and our mind doesn’t allow us to explore the events after death (Dauben, 2). Cultural and Historical Context The animal orthography contributes in the reshaping of the relationship between writing and subject formation. Dickinson has used references to animals in various other works. In fact it is quite astonishing to notice the range and number of animals she mentions of in her poetic works. In creating an animal orthography, Dickinson then strains beyond metaphor. This transition is referred to as animetaphor in the words of Castronovo. The projection of animetaphor gives poetry in itself an extra social liveliness. The aspect of animetaphor has been used with great sensibility in the poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I died” (Castronovo, 211-212). The storm of death in the very first stanza is contrasted with the buzz of the fly. The presence of the fly instead of the signs of immortality is very significantly noticed in the poem. The fly is a sort of irritant and has been metaphysically used. The image of a fly is dynamically contrasting to the features of death. Te description used in here is highly original and the poet reverses the images, ideas and conventions about death, dying and the mourning. The poem questions the traditional view of death as peaceful and suggests to its agonizing effect and involves drama. The window is referred to as perceptive sensory organs which appear to fail at the time of death (Rao, 36). Themes: Mortality is a significant theme in “I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died”. Dickinson uses the poem to explore all kinds of things about death from the point of view of the speaker and the reader. She thinks and enumerates about the feeling before the death, and how the process tends to happen, and also what we expect from it. The author looks at the idea from a variety of angles – before, during, and after the moment of death – and maybe tries to get us to think about it in new ways (Shmoop University, Inc, 12). Family is another theme that is remarkably noticeable. In the poem, Dickinson mentions of ‘Eyes’ around the dying speaker as in line 5. It has been said that, “The Eyes around – had wrung them dry”. In this context family holds a big part in the deathbed scene where a mention has also been made of the “Keepsakes” in the the nineth line, “I willed my keepsakes” (Dickinson, 465). The ritual of leaving a will or formally giving away possessions is a part of the process. In bringing up this aspect of the deathbed scene, Dickinson mentions of the social and legal obligations that are closely associated with the process of death (Shmoop University, Inc, 12). There is also a close association between man and the natural world. The opening line of the poem, “I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” is guided by two contrasting characteristics of the theme. The two sides of the theme are figuratively explained by the presence of a dying person and a buzzing fly. There is an encounter of these two forms of the natural world in the poem. The speaker is dying in the human world but the fly appears from the natural world. Just like death, it is natural and unplanned. The struggle between the natural forces and the human beings, where certain rules are followed share a relevant part and drives the poem. Relevant features of the human and natural forms of element can also be depicted from the line where natural world metaphor has been used to describe emotions and voices and happenings of the human world. In the opening line though the situation is compared with ‘stillness’ just before the storm, the line that states an alarm after the storm can be deduced from the fourth line where the poet says, “Between the Heavens of Storm” (Dickinson 465). Here the crying of people in the room is comparable to the heaving of storm. Energy of the natural world is a powerful force in the poem (Shmoop University, Inc, 13). Strongly interspersed with the poem is a profound sense of spirituality. In the first line where the poet states that “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died” is sure to evoke in readers a deep sense of introspection. The past tense used deliberately by the poet is reason enough to understand the element of spirituality ingrained in it. Further cases of spirituality come up in the seventh and eighth lines where there is a mention of the “King”. “For the last Onset – when the king/ Be witnessed – in the Room” (Dickinson, 465). Dickinson tries to put forward, a spiritual element to the world beyond our everyday life. Here the “King” is referred to a powerful force; maybe it is God or may be some idea to visualize the strange power of spirituality. Dickinson shows a focused attention to imagining the details of what happens after death (Shmoop University, Inc, 13). In the end of the poem, the fly cuts the link of natural world and the eternal world. Here, ‘Light’ is used as the imagery to suggest the pronounced spirituality ingrained. In regular terms, it might be thought that the fly interrupted the speaker’s line of sight at the moment of death. But in the other sense, it also makes the other possibilities of spirituality deeper. In one way, apart from the spiritual effects that this line may suggest, our understanding of the real world also brings out a meaning. The ‘fly’ is the barrier of the reality from eternity. Maybe the fly represents something ugly and evil about the real world that prevents people like the speaker from reaching the light after death. Dickinson, uses symbols like ‘Light’ and the ‘King’ to signify the eternal kingdom and the ‘fly’ in here symbolizes certain traits or qualities in a person. Interpretation Dickinson’s portrayal of death is realistic, which she achieves through the grammatical chooses she makes. The words chosen to use along with the modifiers bring the fact closer that there is only a couple of different ways to interpret this poem, but the idea of death is vividly explained. Dickinson had a rage against death; a rage that has led her to hate life and death at times. Like many people of her period, Dickinson was fascinated by death-bed scenes (Bennet, 76-77). ‘Death ’as depicted in this poem is painless, yet the vision of death it presents is horrifying and gruesome. The appearance of an ordinary, insignificant fly at the climax of a life at first merely startles and disconcerts us. But by the end of the poem, the fly has acquired a dreadful meaning. Clearly, the central image is the fly. It makes a literal appearance in three of the four stanzas and is what the speaker experiences in dying. The poem has a short title but has a deeper meaning. Death is inevitable to all who are born, although not all deaths are disturbed by a pesky fly. In the poem “I Heard a Fly Buzz- When I Died”, the feeling of death present in the room is the overall tone. The connection between death and the flies persistent buzzing is one that must be looked at very closely. The buzzing of the fly is not particularly noticed in ordinary circumstances but under particular situations like when we encounter death even the smallest of the details becomes noticeable (Bennet, 78). Within the poem, Dickinson uses figurative language to her full advantage, by setting the mood of sadness in time successfully. Dickinson’s desire for spiritual transformation is the central impulse in her writing (McIntosh, 135). The poet chooses to write in the past tense while explaining the sad scene and uses the word ‘wrung’ to suggest that the grieving is over now. The usage of placements and time was both critically used in the poem. If Dickinson would use the symbol too much, it would then take away from the moment of focusing on death and urge readers to think more about the fly. But in the context the buzz of the fly is chosen as the symbol to regard a subtle defining line between the world of eternity and the world of reality. The flies buzz has been used in the text to convey something which would be ignored under normal circumstances. In fact, the poet realizes and conveys through the poem that we come closer to our senses just before the onset of death. The sense of hearing is the last of the five senses that a person will lose as the process of dying comes closer through the poem. The idea of window being closed is very symbolically used. Just as the window shuts light into a room, the idea of a window being closed refers to the person's life coming to an end. When the window shuts it cuts off all the light to the person's eyes, and therefore the idea of death is being used. The window in this case may very well not even be a glass window that a person would look out; rather it would be the lid to the coffin this individual was lying in. Sensibility Emily Dickinson is a poet of immense delicacy, a recluse who finds spaces in tiny incidents which we are often likely to miss out in the clumsiness of either religious assertion or despair. These characteristics are real and so make it possible for her to be a deeply religious poet; perhaps, she is the only truly Christian poet in the American literary tradition (Hunter & Davies, 337). Emily Dickinson detonates the moment of contingency very elegantly through the chosen words for the poem. It recreates the formalities of a death-bed and in its light touches of religious language and the shedding of the self, both in aspects of individual and the community come into the picture. Across the loss of this subject, in the non-being of the moment of death, there interposes a fly. Dickinson uses the subject ‘I’ as the speaker. This interpolation makes it possible for readers to be in that moment of maximum brilliance that is offered (Hunter & Davies, 336). Rhyme Emily Dickinson was the master of Slant Rhyme. In the poem, “I heard a Fly Buzz When I died”, lines one and three in the first stanza are good examples of slant rhyme. “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”. Here, the words ‘Room’ and ‘Storm’ are slant rhymes (Fandel, 10). Rhyme Scheme There is a predominant effect of Dickinson, on the punctuation. Her frequent construction of phrases as freestanding clauses promotes the effect. At the same time, the metrical drive of iambics and tetra metrics is also strong. Construction of successive dash’d off phrases backward and forward boosts the overall poem’s effect (Lennard, 27). On an incomprehensive approach and straight forward base of reporting in the past tense the events of one’s own deathbed, the poem establishes what is in effect a timeless present within which the usual linearity of syntax is in fact suspended. There is however, a counter-pattern noticeable. Although beginning in the past tense as “I heard”, Dickinson then further reverts to a more distant past “were gathering” and then again looks to the future as “when the King”. Finally, the pace of the poem is regained by the use of initial past, with the reappearance of the fly before continuing with the end of cessation. Considering the syntactical-punctuational practice at large, along with its deployment in the poem, one might recall her constant words and phrases of isolation. Dickinson often has used this effect to deconstruct and itemize the hypocrisies of the masculine society to which she belonged to. In an increasing scientific world, she could turn it on herself to give fights of imagination, language and fantasy telling through details, clarity and also articulation. If consideration is made to decide upon the poem as a whole, given the odd situation the poem drives the readers into, the syntactical force of each of the isolated phrase is sufficient to coax readers that oddity of the writing skill is to be profitably accepted. The accumulating and disciplined observations of the meter and form justify to the individually used syntactic phrases (Lennard, 28). Meter The poem “I heard a Fly buzz when I died” is well written in a perfect iambic meter. That means the lines are divided into two syllable chunks, with the emphasis on the second syllable. The length of the sections and the lines is regular too. There are four sections (stanzas) each with four lines. The first and the third lines in each stanza have eight syllables (the fancy name for that is iambic tetrameter). The second and fourth lines each have six syllables (or, iambic trimeter). Making a poem this regular takes some work, so we know Dickinson went out of her way to give it a smooth, rhythmic feel (Lennard). Conclusion The poem about death plays on the irony of life and faith. The real emphasis is on what we think it is real might not always be, even if we truly belief that it is. The narrator in the poem as referred to here is excited about meeting God. But then again, reaching heaven finally it is left blank, doubtful, and unsure of what awaits to at the end. Going against everything the narrator believed in, and hoped for, God did not show up; the narrator did not reach the light. Going by the flow of the poem, it becomes evident in the end that even if there was even a light to reach, or if there is even a God to go to, the destination wasn’t found. It was entirely left in the darkness, and what followed next will never be known. References Castronovo, Russ. The Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century American Literature. Oxford University Press, 2012 Dickinson, Emily, Poems by Emily Dickinson, Hayes Barton Press, 1955 Dauben, Miriam. “Emily Dickinson” - The Death Motif in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson. Germany: Auflauge, 2009. Emily Dickenson. 2009, July 9, 2012 from: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fly.html Shmoop Poetry Guide. I heard a Fly buzz – when I died. Shmoop University, Inc. 2010 Bennett, Paula. Emily Dickson: Woman Poet. USA: University of Iowa Press, 1990 McIntosh, James. Nimble Believing: Dickinson And The Unknown. USA: University of Michigan Press, 2004 Ray & Kates. Ray’s Introduction to Literature. Sounds & Rhyme, 1998, July 10, 2012 from: http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/English_Literature/terms/sound.htm . Fandel, Jennifer. Rhyme, Meter, And Other Word Music. The Creative Company, 2005 Lennard, John, The Poetry Handbook (Second Edition), Oxford University Press, 2006 Hunter, Alaister G., Davies, Philip R. Sense and Sensitivity: Essays on Reading the Bible in Memory of Robert Carroll. Sheffield Academic Press Ltd. 2002 Rao, S Prakash, Current Perspectives on American Literature: Poetry, Fiction, Drama, Literary Theory, Comparative Literature, Creative Writing and Mass Communication. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1995 Read More