J465

I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -The Stillness in the RoomWas like the Stillness in the Air -Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -And Breaths were gathering firmFor that last Onset - when the King -Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed awayWhat portion of me beAssignable - and then it wasThere interposed a Fly -

With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz -Between the light - and me -And then the Windows failed -and thenI could not see to see -

c. 1862                    1896

This is one of Dickinson’s best-known poems on death as an epistemological frontier. The question it poses is: What will be witnessed at the moment of death? But since it is a construct of language, and thus of consciousness, whatever may be revealed is left paradoxically concealed.