Emily Dickinson

There's no mistake about it; Emily Dickinson is one of the greatest poets of all time in the sense that she has common recurring themes that make you wonder just what it is she's talking about. In particular, her poem "I heard a fly buzz -- when I died" had sort of an intriguing feel to it. The poem depicts the speaker on their deathbed, their relatives all around them, crying and waiting to see when they'll go. While this happens, there is a fly buzzing around them between them and the so-called "Light" -- presumably talking about heaven. While, in class, we did not necessarily come up with a conclusion as to what this means, I recall back when I read this in high school that we sort of concluded that the fly may represent the devil or some other demon. The message behind the poem remains unclear due to Dickinson passing away before all her works were published. Still, it's worth discussing exactly what she meant about her poems in which one of her main themes was death.