Analysis of Dying (I heard a fly buzz when I died)

Emily Dickinson 1830 (Amherst) – 1886 (Amherst)



I heard a fly buzz when I died;
   The stillness round my form
   Was like the stillness in the air
   Between the heaves of storm.
   The eyes beside had wrung them dry,
   And breaths were gathering sure
   For that last onset, when the king
   Be witnessed in his power.
   I willed my keepsakes, signed away
  What portion of me I
  Could make assignable, -- and then
  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.


Scheme XAXABXXXXBCB XDCD
Poetic Form
Metre 11011111 010111 11010001 010111 01011111 0101001 1111101 1100110 1111101 110111 11101 1101 110101001 010101 01010101 111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 528
Words 95
Sentences 4
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 12, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 193
Words per stanza (avg) 47
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 05, 2023

28 sec read
193

Emily Dickinson

Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was an American poet. more…

All Emily Dickinson poems | Emily Dickinson Books

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