Analysis of Because I Could Not Stop for Death and I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died Poems by Dickinson - Essay Example

Reading Emily Dickinson is an exhilarating journey full of surprises. When it comes to writing about her poetry, it is a different matter altogether.The experience is humbling, as the sheer variety of themes and the ambiguity of the poet's approach make it difficult to form a single theory that explains her entire thought process. In the current essay, I have chosen to examine two of her poems Because I could not stop for Death and I heard a fly buzz when I died. I have chosen both poems in the same category as it provides avenue for a comparative study. Death is a favorite theme for Dickinson along with love, time and eternity. Death is fascinating, depressing and terrifying to her. Unlike some of her contemporaries, Dickinson does not stop with sentimentality while handling the theme of death. She examines death from several points of view and with different feelings on different occasions. Sometimes she is the onlooker or mourner, at others she is the one who is dying and on yet another occasion she narrates the event as if she is already dead and the soul witnesses the proceedings. There are feelings of terror, fascination, curiosity or sorrow, while in some other poems the poet assumes a tone of clinical detachment. To quote Ferlazzo (p.41), "In almost six hundred poems she explored the nature of death as completely as any American poet ever dared". Because I could not stop for Death is one of Dickinson's most popular poems where she personifies death as a gentleman caller or suitor. This poem is "a dramatic representation of the passage from this world of the living to the afterlife. The event is couched in a metaphorical use of an activity familiar enough to the men and women of the nineteenth century- a formal but friendly drive in a carriage in the country of a gentleman and his intended lady" (Ferlazzo, p.54). The events of the story are narrated in perspective, from beyond the grave. The lady in question is too busy to stop for death. She is "contented within the routine of circuit busyness", (Eberwein, p.217), 'circuit' here referring to the rituals and rites of temporal life. In her busyness, she fails to take a closer look at the caller and thus mistakes Death for yet another suitor who has come to take her out. She also ignores the chaperon who is none other than Immortality. Further, the suitor is deceptively gentle and easy-going as the phrases "He knew no haste" and "for his civility" from the poem suggest. Even in the carriage the lady busies herself with the sights they pass by. They pass the school where the children "strove", the fields of grain and the setting sun. These symbols are associated with the different stages of life- childhood, maturity and old age1. As the sun sets, the lady experiences the chill of death upon her, as she describes with "the dews grew quivering and chill". Thus the poem creates a sense of progression in time along with motion in space as the chariot moves. The narration also contrives to create a sense of heightened vision. "In a literal sense, for example, as the carriage gains altitude to make its heavenly approach, a house seems as 'A Swelling of the Ground'".2 The house here symbolizes the grave. The poet seems to have an ambivalent attitude towards the nature of death. Is Death really the gentleman suitor he seems to be in the opening lines Is he really kind and easy going, or is his behavior just a ploy to win the lady over 3 The lady in the narrative seems to realize the true nature of her chariot ride too late when she "surmised the horses' heads were toward eternity". Why doesn't her suitor tell her "She had, therefore, apparently been tricked, seduced, and then abandoned. In these terms, then, Dickinson is being terribly ironic throughout the poem" (Ferlazzo, p.56). Neither the poet nor the reader is fully aware of the import of the proceedings until the very end of the poem. The poem I heard a fly buzz when I died is yet another narrative of the dying process, captured through the physical perceptions of the dying person. Apparently, the poet is the dying person in the poem. "The somber and hushed atmosphere of the opening lines is jarred by the ludicrous presence of a buzzing fly" (Ferlazzo, p.49). The mourners have wrung their eyes dry and are now waiting with abated breath, the last word or gesture of the dying person. But the poet chooses to steer clear of any semblance of grandeur. The dying person spends the last moments "signing away her collectibles and contemplating a fly" (Ferlazzo, p.50). The poem ends on a note of despair, as the fly prevents the dying person from seeing light. Light here signifies not only the light from the windows (which can also mean the eyes), but the light of heaven as well. Thus the significance of the fly grows to ominous proportions, from a petty annoyance to a symbol of decay. The fly doubtlessly acts as the central image of the poem4. It is noteworthy that in the second stanza the poet presents the image of a king. "The breaths were gathering sure, For that last onset, when the king, Be witnessed in his power". This refers to the romantic perception of death as a majestic event. However what appears in the King's place is a trivial fly. Is there a connection between the King and the fly The irony is bitter as the poet juxtaposes the expected grandeur of the dying moment against the triviality the dying person experiences. The two poems studied here have some common elements as well as differences. Both the poems have an undertone of irony, but I heard a fly buzz when I died seems to be the bitterer of the two. The imagery used here are those of absurdity and despair. The fly prevents the dying person from seeing the light. Nothing seems to remain after death, other than decay. Because I could not stop for death in contrast has a vision of eternity and uses more pleasant imagery in the course of journey. Death himself has an air of dignity as the dying lady is wooed to go with him. Thus these two poems serve as two ends of Emily Dickinson's wide spectrum of poems on death. Works Cited Because I could not stop for Death (January 25, 2003), Extracted on 14 December 2005 from URL: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/stop.html Dickinson's Because I could not stop for Death (n.d), Source: Explicator, Fall91, Vol. 50 Issue 1, p20, 2p, Author: Shaw, M.N. Extracted on 14 December 2005 from URL: http://www.cswnet.com/erin/ed14.htm Eberwein, J.D. Dickinson-Strategies of Limitation. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. Emily Dickinson (n.d.), Extracted on 14 December 2005 from URL: http://allfreeessays.com/student/Emily Dickinson.html Ferlazzo, P.J. Emily Dickinson. Boston: Twayne Publishers, A Division of G.K Hall& Co., 1976 I heard a fly buzz when I died (January 25, 2003), Extracted on 14 December 2005 from URL: http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fly.html Read More