I heard a Fly buzz
I heard a Fly buzz |
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by Emily Dickinson | ||
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air –
Between the Heaves of Storm –
The Eyes around – had wrung them dry –
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset – when the King
Be witnessed – in the Room –
I willed my Keepsakes – Signed away
What portions of me be
Assignable – and then it was
There interposed a Fly –
With Blue – uncertain stumbling Buzz –
Between the light – and me –
And then the Windows failed – and then
I could not see to see –
I came across this quoted in "The Moth Diaries". The school girl Dora who died falling from the roof had been writing a novel, a dialogue between Nietzsche and Brahms. Emily is also a favourite of Camille Paglia and Dora would have understood Emily. Was it Nietzsche or Dora that said, "Better to believe in the void than to believe in nothing" ? |