Lyric Poem · Death & Loss
I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
by Emily Dickinson · 1896
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.
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“I heard a Fly buzz — when I died” by Emily Dickinson — quilloak.com/poems/i-heard-a-fly-buzz-when-i-died
Quick facts
- Poem
- I heard a Fly buzz — when I died
- Poet
- Emily Dickinson
- Published
- 1896
- Length
- 16 lines
- Form
- Lyric Poem
- Themes
- Death & Loss
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 16 lines · 4 quatrains
- End rhyme
- ABCB in 75% of the stanzas — ballad rhyme — only lines 2 and 4 chime. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Lines run 6-8 syllables (median 7). No single length dominates, which is normal once elision and contraction are in play.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
Full-text display is based on the cited edition and a United States term-expiry review.
- Author record
- Emily Dickinson1830–1886
- Source record
- WikisourceI heard a Fly buzz — when I died by emily-dickinson, Wikisource transcription
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
- Publication record
- 1896
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 8f82d54c3a7d5e52…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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