Dickinson's choice of perspective in 591is a curious one; she writes about her own death and goes into great detail about her experiences during the transition. In the first stanza, Dickinson introduces the Fly, a simple meaningless distraction that later evolves in the poem. In a sense the Fly symbolizes life in the beginning of them poem and later transforms into a symbol of death. Line one reads, "I heard a Fly," Late in stanza three line four reads, "There interposed a Fly." This line is later followed by, "between the light and me/and then the windows failed-and then /I could not see." As the tension builds up in stanza four, it is as if Dickinson is mirroring herself taking her last breath. Unlike before, when she could still sense and hear, she no longer possesses the ability to see. Dickinson is no longer alive. The fly, or better said "death", did not escape. The little Fly's "uncertain-stumbling buzz" is like a flickering light that represents her life.
The poems structure is rather systematic, as well. All four stanzas follow an 8686 syllable pattern, with the exception of line two in stanza two. Depending on one's pronunciation, this line varied between 6-7 syllables. I found this to be interesting, considering the line reads, "And Breaths were gathering firm." Reminiscent of the poem's morbid topic, Dickinson' varied syllable use emphasizes the fact that Breaths, which is capitalized, are coming to a calm end, much like her death.
I find the perspective of this poem quite intriguing as well. We get the very indication with the first line "I heard a Fly buzz - when I died." I find the "when I died" particularly interesting because with the dashes and past tense it seems as if the speakers death came as an afterthought. This first line also tells us it’s a ghost story, not that it is a story about a ghost (though it sort of is) but primarily that it is a ghost that is telling the story. Granted you note that the fly evolves in the poem, I wouldn't be so quick to even initially assume that this fly is simple, meaningless distraction. To me it would initially seem as if her death is what is peripheral to the fly, not vice versa; though the speaker does move rather quickly away from the fly in the very next line. But I am starting to think that the swift transition away from the fly is to setup a sharp contrast of the “stillness in the room/… stillness of the air-/ between the heaves of storm.” To me I feel as if the fly is symbolic of the bustle of life before and shortly after death, but the moment of death is like being in the eye of a storm, where there was chaos liveliness before entering the eye and there will chaos and liveliness after the storm moves past you. I took this to mean the commotion of ritual before someone dies, where people are gathering and mourning what’s to come, then when death occurs there is a bit of calm as it happens and then as its over additional mourning happens again.
ReplyDeleteIt was quite interesting that she was looking at her death in retrospect. It was almost as if the fly representing something insignificant and that a fly is almost an after thought like her death. This could be a comment on how we are just little tiny specks of star dust in contrast to the great wonders of the eternal. Although, I found her use of dashes for dramatic tension very effective and it gave each phrase much more importance than without the pauses. I find this ironic due to the idea that a fly is mostly viewed as an annoyance that is unimportant but the tension gives the phrases significance.
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