Monday, February 04, 2013

I heard a Fly buzz

I heard a Fly buzz

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" ?