Emily Dickinson lived with her mother and father in Amherst, Massachusetts. Her father was a lawyer, who was active in their community and served as an active treasurer in Amherst College. He also was involved in the local politics. Her mother wasn’t in the best of health and was considered to be a dark side to Ms. Dickinson.

Her withdrawal from society gave her an unexpected reputation. She refused to leave her home, and her always wearing white garments gave her a reputation for eccentricity among all of her neighbors. She became even more separated from the world when her father died in 1874(Higginson 1-2).

Emily Dickinson was a poet that kept to herself and put down on paper what she was thinking about. Her writings could be considered Gothic. “Gothic writing is a la

In Emily Dickinson’s poem # 465, “ I heard a fly buzz (Baym 1202)”; Dickinson uses words and imagery to express the last thoughts and sensations of the speaker while dying and the ultimate emptiness in death. The theme of death is expresses with many

gruesome] (Major Literary Movements and Terms, handout)”. A lot of Emily Dickinson’s poems could be thought of as Gothic. Her poems always being concerned with death and giving gloomy feelings to the reader.

ideas in the poem; the focus on the fly, the description of mourners gathered around the dying speaker, and the reference to the loss of sight and consciousness. The first line expresses the theme of death literally in the words, “when I died (Baym 1202)”, and in the use of the words, “I heard a fly buzz (Baym 1202)”. A fly lays its eggs in dead organisms; a decaying corpse is often seen swarming with flies. The placement of words in the line, the fly being heard buzzing after the death of the speaker, reinforces the idea of the speaker’s physical death and decay, since flies gather around animals shortly after their death. The capitalization of the word “Fly (Baym 1202)” further implies the significance of the fly to the speaker.

The presence of a whole group of mourners is implied with the word “around”, suggesting that the speaker is surrounded by observing mourners. The idea of mourning

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