I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

I heard a Fly Buzz when I Died

The use of sound devices in a poem in poetry is normally aimed at blending the sounds of the poem with the imagery aspect of the poem thus creating or enhancing an emotional response. In the first line of stanza number, the poet has used the sound device of onomatopoeia to describe how the fly flies through buzzing. She has used the actual sound of flies with to create an image on what flies area all about. The poet has also employed the use of resonance to create a variety of poetic sounds which are expressed in a unique form of texture. This can be depicted from the way she connects the idea of death in the first stanza with the stillness that exists in her and the resulting calmness of air in line three and four of stanza one.

The persona of the poem tries to show the dilemma of death. While others might perceive it as an opportunity for calmness for the deceased person, it also acts as a moment of wailing, possibly from the ones left behind or those who witnessed the departure. In the midst of this confusion, the persona is in a dilemma on whether to follow the calmness of death respond to the wail and within no time, her chance to make a decision runs out of time.

The poem has used a stanzaic form of poetic structure since it has organized its 16 lines into four stanzas with each having four lines. The four stanzas have been used to help make the poem more understandable and enhance the flow of ideas throughout the poem. Actually, the poem’s pattern moves from the introduction of the state of the personal, the resulting dilemma and how the uncertainty disappears once she fails to make a timely decision.