Literary Devices in I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died

Line thirteen features assonance, or the repetition of vowel sounds. The repetition of the vowel “u” sound in “blue,” “uncertain,” “stumbling,” and “buzz” builds anticipation of the final moment of death by drawing out the sound of the words, thus intensifying their impact.

Lines six, seven, and eight are enjambed, which means that they contain a thought or phrase that flows from one line into the next. Enjambment creates a sense of anticipation that extends from the simile established in the first stanza, in which the stillness inside the speaker’s room resembles that of the stillness during a lull in a storm. Dickinson further heightens the reader’s anticipation by suggesting that “the king,” presumably an allusion to Jesus Christ, will appear at “that last onset,” or the speaker’s death.

This line uses a synecdoche, or a device in which a whole thing is referred to by the name of one of its parts. Dickinson refers to the speaker’s loved ones as “eyes,” rather than as entire people, to signify their intense mourning. Each individual, helpless in the face of inevitable death, is reduced to a pair of weeping eyes that are being wrung dry.

Dickinson employs a simile, or the comparison of two things using the word “like” or “as,” in her description of the scene in the speaker’s room. By comparing the “stillness round my form” to the “stillness in the air / Between the heaves of storm” the speaker suggests that chaos and violence will soon follow. Her choice of the word “heave” also suggests weeping—thus indicating that the violent storm represents the emotional distress that the speaker’s loved ones will undergo after she dies. Dickinson’s original text for line two reads “The Stillness in the Room,” shifting emphasis from the speaker’s personal experience to the environment in which the poem is set.

Lines two and three feature sibilance, or the repetition of the consonant “s,” with the repetition of “stillness,” creating a hissing sound when read aloud. This hissing sound reinforces the poem’s gloomy tone while also developing anticipation for whatever might interrupt that heavy silence.

The poem opens with an end-stopped line, or a phrase that concludes with punctuation—in this case, a semicolon; in the original, an em dash. The end-stopped line slows down the reading process so that readers linger with the content of the first line, which creates a heavy, somber tone.

The editors removed an em dash (—) that interrupts the first line of the poem to set off “when I died.” This dash is an example of caesura, or a break within a line of verse. Without the caesura, the line flows uninterrupted; however, Dickinson’s use of caesura here and in other poems helps establish emphasis and rhythm.