Analyzing Emily Dickinson's Poems

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1. The setting of the poem is of a person (presumably Emily Dickinson because of the repetitive usage of “me”) on her deathbed with the point of view of the person already dead writing from her grave. The setting is thick and heavy with the somber and silent atmosphere of one awaiting death. The speaker is the character in the poem who is slowly dying.
2. There are others present in the poem, who are presumably the speaker’s close loved ones as they are surrounding her on her deathbed. The addition information provided about those in attendance are that “The Eyes around – had wrung them dry – and Breaths were gathering firm”; that the guests’ were done crying and had recollected themselves and gathered their thoughts preparing for the speaker’s death.
3. The distinction the speaker makes about her/his “Keepsakes” is that only the parts that are “assignable” were “Signed away”. She gives up parts of her worldly material possessions, but does not give away everything – saving her legacy, parts of herself, and her soul.
4. …show more content…
The author chooses a fly as a subject matter for a poem about the moment of death because of the associations that flies have. A fly is pesky and persistent, always coming in at the worst times. It is representative of death and decay, it is dirty, and it is filthy. Flies are decomposers, they prey and thrive off of death, and it is almost as if the fly comes into the room knowing that death is here. The “fly on the wall” is usually death, and it is almost as if the fly is no longer on the wall and is instead flying free since death is being so deeply and widely acknowledged in the room. The fly is also like “the lord of the flies”, which is the Devil, showing how a fly is reminiscent of death and
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