I heard a Fly buzz — when I died Quotes

Context

This line is from the poem "I heard a Fly buzz — when I died" by Emily Dickinson.

Flies have creepy, buggy faces that only fly mamas could love. And even then, we're not sure. No one likes flies. They're creepy and annoying, and you find them near garbage, poop… basically nowhere you want to be.

You also find flies near dead bodies and rotting meat, which is a lovely image to conjure up in a poem. Who says poetry has to be about snowy woods and summer days? Not Emily Dickinson, that's for sure. She writes about death and decay, and this is the first line of her most famous poem about death. She hears a fly buzz when she dies, an eerie image suspending her between the vitality of life and the decay of death.

Where you've heard it

You've heard your Goth friend say this when they're really tired or hungry, or you've heard it when a fly is bugging your friends.

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Quoting this poem might make you a little too Goth for some tastes, but it doesn't make you all that pretentious.