Poem 465

465

I heard a Fly buzz -- when I died --  

Morbid, describing her own death. Sets the tone for the remainder of the poem. What is she actually feeling? She is explaining the last thing that she heard when she died.

The Stillness in the Room  

The sadness? This is a expressing how lonely Dickinson feels in life? Seems like she cannot depend anyone. Continues the tone of the previous line. Nothing is moving

Was like the Stillness in the Air --  

Depressing brings out the stagnancy of the line. Nothing is moving like the previous line. Should we look at this as an expression of how she feels?
Between the Heaves of Storm --  

Beautiful description. Describes the in between that the author feels? The language is more colorful than the previous line; however, it is still expressing the in between that the above lines have been expressing.
The Eyes around -- had wrung them dry --  

Again colorful language, but this time there is an expression of grief and we move away from how the author feels to how people around her felt.
And Breaths were gathering firm

Gasps of breath? Who is breathing her or the people around her? Is she alone? Breaths are becoming shallow so these could be hers.

For that last Onset -- when the King

The King refers to God and how he is swooping down from heaven to take her back, but this is very different from the rest of the poem. There is a shift here.

Be witnessed -- in the Room --

She is deciding to give up her life and enter into the after life. Morbid like all the lines before it but somehow disturbing because the reader feels like they are intruding on a personal moment or going with the author.

She is seeing God, she is wanting to go with him

God and Heaven are worshipped in this poem while death is present it is the presence of God and Heaven that stand out.
I willed my Keepsakes -- Signed away

Signed will? Gave her life away? Is this suicide? Does she give up?
What portion of me be

She is questioning? SHe is giving herself away. she has signed her life away. Works with the rest of the poem because each line gets increasingly more disturbing.

Assignable -- and then it was

Excepting what is. Fits with the moor theme of the poem because it seems like she wants to die, so she has accepted what is.
There interposed a Fly --

Again this sort of in between feeling, like the fly is separating her from life and death like the fly is the only thing holding her to this world.

With Blue -- uncertain stumbling Buzz --

She is associating a color with the fly? Not black an gloomy death like color, but a buzzy blue? This does not fit with the rest of the poem.

Between the light -- and me --

separation from light. She lives in the dark? She will only be happy in death?

And then the Windows failed -- and then

The Window that separates her from life and death. This line does not fit because it seems like she is fighting against death rather than embracing it in the other lines.
I could not see to see --

She dies and leaves the in between, leaves the fly, her will and enters heaven with God. Ends like it started creepy, morbid and uncomfortable for the reader.

List of concepts that stuck out:

-Did she like to imagine her own death and who would miss her?

-Extremely morbid tone

-A sort parallelism between hear and the after life.

-God and Heaven are worshipped in this poem while death is present it is the presence of God and Heaven that stand out.

-Fly separates her from life and in turn death. It represents the in between.

- Lives in the dark and only sees light in death.

-She dies and leaves the in between, leaves the fly, her will and enters heaven with God.