-- Posted by medjai at 11:37 pm on Sep. 8, 2008 I expect you to fail as usual but here's Emily Dickenson's best poem. I heard a fly buzz when I died;      The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air      Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry,      And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king      Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away      What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then      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. DISCUSS! -- Posted by the real anti christ at 11:58 pm on Sep. 8, 2008 Firstly, Emily Dickinson sucks balls. Secondly her name is spelled with a 'i' not an 'e'. Thirdly 'last onset' is a bit of an oxymoron, death can hardly be a beginning unless your delusional though... -- Posted by medjai at 12:54 am on Sep. 9, 2008 I'm not interested in spelling or Emily's skill as a poet, I am interested in comments like the third one though. I'd imagine each breath an onset, perhaps she's describing her last? Or is it a reference to the soul leaving the body, mayhap implied by the heavenly imagery of the King being witnessed in power. -- Posted by the real anti christ at 1:01 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Is the king not God? Is the Fly not the Devil? Is this whole thing not a parody of the marriage of heaven and hell in so few words? -- Posted by medjai at 1:26 am on Sep. 9, 2008 I don't think it is, I think it's made out to be far more meaningful than it really is, and that overall there's just one important message from this poem. Why are you the only one with the balls to respond to my intellectual forum topics half the time I mean it's not exactly supposed to be intimidating to discuss a poem, and it's not as though someone can come out and be like "OH YA WELL I KNEW EMILY PERSONALLY AND SHE TOLD ME IT MEANT THIS SO YOU'RE WRONG." Come on you fags, what do you think the poem is saying, what do you think a specific part of the poem is saying, what do you think the fly represents? Is TRAC right, is it the Devil? Does Emily believe in heaven and hell? Does she believe in the afterlife, is she making fun of belief in the afterlife? Is she scoffing at the last great hurrah? Is she lamenting about how worthless life is, or how trivial death is? Come now children it's not that difficult and it's a fun poem. -- Posted by the real anti christ at 1:36 am on Sep. 9, 2008 If she meant it to be a mere ballad of death why include so many extras? Although I agree that no one on their death bed will be so intently making connections like that it still seems as though she did not write it simplistically enough for that purpose. On that note your scary maybe they are afraid of you. I bet you bite. -- Posted by medjai at 1:43 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Well it'd seem appropriate to throw in the elements that she threw in for it to have the message I suspect it has, but I can't just give away my thoughts because then the "intellectuals" here would just agree with me and I wouldn't see any real insight besides yours which would be lame since I made a whole topic for this. :( -- Posted by the real anti christ at 1:46 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Since the fly appers so much I can only assume its a central figure. I think it represents the futility of living. Then again that could just be my mood so suck it. Thats the only real opinion I had after reading. Everything else was advanced English four AP test prep bullshit. -- Posted by Event Horizon at 8:37 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Well.   Since I do not agree that the fly represents the devil, I will give my little 20 second idea: I think it is a poem about the loneliness of death. She talks about willing away all of her belongings, giving away everything that --materially-- made her her. She speaks of her family and friends whose Eyes had teared so much as to have wrung their bodies dry; waiting in anxious, depressing anticipation for the moment when she would actually die. Yet she does not hear these things or really care about these things. No, here focus was on the single fly. To her, the air was still, there was nothing. But there was a fly. What should have gone un-noticed in a room full of her family and friends [the fly] was her focus, the moment before she died. She had no care about herself, or her relatives, she cared only for the fly, who was with her as she realized death was upon her.  The fly, stumbling through life with boundless uncertainty, just as she faced death with the same. I don't know. that's just what I got out of it. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 9:45 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Bahhhhh damn you for making me want to stop doing actual work and analyze. *pouts* I'll write something worthwhile when I'm not handling the phones and trying to make IT contacts, but I just wanted to state that I am very bothered by this. -- Posted by the real anti christ at 11:41 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from exceedinglyrare at 11:45 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Bahhhhh damn you for making me want to stop doing actual work and analyze. *pouts* I'll write something worthwhile when I'm not handling the phones and trying to make IT contacts, but I just wanted to state that I am very bothered by this. Hot and bothered? -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 11:57 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from the real anti christ at 2:41 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from exceedinglyrare at 11:45 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Bahhhhh damn you for making me want to stop doing actual work and analyze. *pouts*    I'll write something worthwhile when I'm not handling the phones and trying to make IT contacts, but I just wanted to state that I am very bothered by this. Hot and bothered? I will be once I get to analyzing. Literary analysis makes me all tingly inside. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 12:34 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 OKAY. I'm still at work, but my boss is gone for the day, SO LET'S DO THIS THING BITCHES. Quote: from Emily Dickinson at 2:37 am on Sep. 9, 2008 I heard a fly buzz when I died;   The stillness round my form Was like the stillness in the air   Between the heaves of storm. The eyes beside had wrung them dry,   And breaths were gathering sure For that last onset, when the king   Be witnessed in his power. I willed my keepsakes, signed away   What portion of me I Could make assignable,-and then   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. So the first thing here is a bit of background, for people who may have been living in a cave and not known this. Emily Dickinson liked death. A lot. Most of her best known poems are about death in one form or another (my personal favorite is "Because I could not stop for Death"), which I'd think would tend to make her a favorite of the hopeful deep members of teenage society...you know, the ones who wear ridiculous amounts of black and think that they're so much more philosophical than the rest of the world because 99% of their crappy teenage poems involve death, pain, sorrow, roses and slashing/cutting/bleeding/insert other form of self mutilation here. The thing is, though, that I don't think Dickinson was so shallowly obsessed with death as much as she was fascinated by the nuances of it. What is it like to die? What does a person go through when they pass away? Is Death something to be feared or embraced? As seen in this poem and in many of her others, Dickinson believed the latter. So let's get down into it. What strikes me most about this poem is the contrast between the silence of the room in which the narrator is dying and the buzz of the fly, and that theme of contrast lends itself to my personal interpretation, that Dickinson is saying that no matter what we do or how resigned we are to it, no matter how much we've accepted it, we can't control Death. It's out of our hands. The narrator, I would guess, had probably been preparing for Death for a very long time. She's "willed [her] keepsakes, signed away what portion of [her she] could make assignable," which suggests that possibly she was dying of some long, lingering illness that had given her plenty of forewarning that Death was coming at some point in the near future. Her loved ones, too, have had the chance to prepare for the inevitability of her passing (see: second stanza), and it actually seems like Death has now become this holy thing which they are all about to witness, in sacred silence, to see God ("the king be witnessed in his power") come and take the narrator from life into the hereafter. But despite all of this planning and despite her desire, it would seem, to have her Death be an Event in which people are quiet, contemplative and sacred, a fly buzzes. Poor, ignorant fly, probably caught in the window or something along those lines, doesn't realize what's happening here, and so instead of letting things be silent and holy, he buzzes. The narrator is distracted by the sound; her focus shifts from her impeding demise to the sound of the fly. He interrupts her peaceful trip into the hereafter, and that tiny interpose is all that's needed for her to miss what she wanted to be a sacred and holy moment...she's distracted by the "blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz" and misses the moment of rapture she's been expecting when she dies, and then she's dead. Rather than her last thoughts on earth being of the holy and sacred, she was thinking of a fly. The deeper meaning that I think we can glean from this is that no matter how much you plan, no matter how much you decide, no matter how much you plot, death is out of your control. You're not in charge of this one thing. You can try to kill yourself, but whether or not you succeed isn't in your hands. You can prepare for things and hope that all goes according to your design, but ultimately, that's not in your hands. Everything can seem entirely perfect, but at the last minute, a fly could make your ideal exit of this world go from magical to mundane. Next? -- Posted by Event Horizon at 12:40 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Ah, that's what my interpretation was missing. I had the same thoughts up until that last idea, the most important. I agree 100% with your interpretation, the fly distracting her from the light, that power of the King that is to be witnessed. Thanks, I was taking a step back to see what I needed in my interpretation, and that was it. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 12:52 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from Event Horizon at 3:40 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Ah, that's what my interpretation was missing. I had the same thoughts up until that last idea, the most important. I agree 100% with your interpretation, the fly distracting her from the light, that power of the King that is to be witnessed. Thanks, I was taking a step back to see what I needed in my interpretation, and that was it. haha No problem. It's what I do best ;) -- Posted by the real anti christ at 2:31 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from Event Horizon at 2:40 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Ah, that's what my interpretation was missing. I had the same thoughts up until that last idea, the most important. I agree 100% with your interpretation, the fly distracting her from the light, that power of the King that is to be witnessed. Thanks, I was taking a step back to see what I needed in my interpretation, and that was it. Get your own interpretation noob. Were you seriously just sitting about waiting for someone to post something you thought looked smart so you could agree with it. Your first reply was shitty so I don't blame you for trying to steal hers.. You only served to point out the obvious: 1. The fly was the central theme. 2. The poem was about death. I have no idea why I am being so mean... oh wait yeah its becasue your a little bitch who just claimed to completely agree with someone whos interpretation was completely different from your first attempt. Suck it. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 2:48 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 He can borrow my interpretation if he wants...as long as he recognizes that it's mine :P -- Posted by Event Horizon at 2:56 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from the real anti christ at 5:31 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from Event Horizon at 2:40 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Ah, that's what my interpretation was missing.    I had the same thoughts up until that last idea, the most important.    I agree 100% with your interpretation, the fly distracting her from the light, that power of the King that is to be witnessed.    Thanks, I was taking a step back to see what I needed in my interpretation, and that was it. Get your own interpretation noob. Were you seriously just sitting about waiting for someone to post something you thought looked smart so you could agree with it. Your first reply was shitty so I don't blame you for trying to steal hers.. You only served to point out the obvious: 1. The fly was the central theme. 2. The poem was about death. I have no idea why I am being so mean... oh wait yeah its becasue your a little bitch who just claimed to completely agree with someone whos interpretation was completely different from your first attempt.   Suck it. did you not read my post PRIOR to hers? I had all of the same elements except the fact that as I saw the fly as merely her main concern, as though neither she, nor her friends/family mattered at that moment, she found that the fly was really that little touch of nature. That power that death has to do what it wants with us. The fly showed us that what magic we are looking for in death is all just that which we perceive as magical. The only power that this 'king' has, is what you give him in those moments before death. If a mere fly can blind you of this "power", is it all that powerful? -- Posted by Event Horizon at 3:01 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 And since you are going to bitch about MY post, let's examine YOUR literary genius Quote: from the real anti christ at 4:01 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Is the king not God? duh Is the Fly not the Devil?   no Is this whole thing not a parody of the marriage of heaven and hell in so few words? no lets look at your other post Since the fly appers so much I can only assume its a central figure. I think it represents the futility of living. Then again that could just be my mood so suck it. Thats the only real opinion I had after reading. Everything else was advanced English four AP test prep bullshit. So you got that the fly was the central theme as well, bravo. The futility of living? where did you get that? because she said its buzz was blue and uncertain? grow the fuck up, and if you are going to criticize someone, back your own shit up edit: Besides, I didn't try to steal anything, she posted her response, I agreed, I noted my agreement, and then I thanked her for her insight so that I wasn't sitting here thinking about what sounded so un-right about my first thought. -- Posted by the real anti christ at 8:01 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 Quote: from Event Horizon at 5:01 pm on Sep. 9, 2008 And since you are going to bitch about MY post, let's examine YOUR literary genius Quote: from the real anti christ at 4:01 am on Sep. 9, 2008 Is the king not God? duh Is the Fly not the Devil?   no Is this whole thing not a parody of the marriage of heaven and hell in so few words? no lets look at your other post Since the fly appers so much I can only assume its a central figure. I think it represents the futility of living. Then again that could just be my mood so suck it. Thats the only real opinion I had after reading. Everything else was advanced English four AP test prep bullshit. So you got that the fly was the central theme as well, bravo. The futility of living? where did you get that? because she said its buzz was blue and uncertain? grow the fuck up, and if you are going to criticize someone, back your own shit up   edit: Besides, I didn't try to steal anything, she posted her response, I agreed, I noted my agreement, and then I thanked her for her insight so that I wasn't sitting here thinking about what sounded so un-right about my first thought. My shit is fine. I was mocking the poem in the first three quotes and comparing it to The marriage of Heaven in hell firstly. Also I wasn't pointing out that the fly was central so much as what that meant. I don't have to back my shit up becasue I'm not a cop out like you. "oh shit I wish I thought of that! I now find it necessary to point out that I too agree with what the chick said becasue I'm a douche who thinks it will make me look better." On that not I then disagree with you BOTH. It is exactly about futility. She was prepared, she had mourners, she was just waiting for the judgment. She got nothing. The fly is the thing which reminds her of this more and more the closer she gets to death and the she sees that there is nothing. You are right in that its interfering with her idea of death as glorious and uplifting. However the reason for that is that the fly represents everything she had wished aginst. Instead bright lights and happiness she got a fly and nothing. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 4:39 am on Sep. 10, 2008 Dudes...it's a poem. Chill. I want another one. Where's medjai? -- Posted by the real anti christ at 12:13 pm on Sep. 10, 2008 Quote: from exceedinglyrare at 6:39 am on Sep. 10, 2008 Dudes...it's a poem. Chill. I want another one. Where's medjai? Since Msdjai pointed out that he didn't want people just agreeing with him I assume that he wouldn't want them just agreeing with you either. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 1:01 pm on Sep. 10, 2008 Quote: from the real anti christ at 3:13 pm on Sep. 10, 2008 Quote: from exceedinglyrare at 6:39 am on Sep. 10, 2008 Dudes...it's a poem. Chill.    I want another one. Where's medjai? Since Msdjai pointed out that he didn't want people just agreeing with him I assume that he wouldn't want them just agreeing with you either. You're exegeting his post incorrectly :P I still want another poem. -- Posted by medjai at 2:35 pm on Sep. 10, 2008 We're not ready for another poem yet because while your thoughts are certainly on target, do you really believe the theme to be the uncontrollable nature of death? Certainly this is an expected passing, planned and arranged, most of these people have gradually mourned her passing and grew to accept it well before this day, but today is the day, it's her passing, her final witness to the proverbial greatness of God, and it's going well, and then a fly enters the scene, buzzing around giving more of a shit about how he get can through that glass pane than anything else. What message then does she bring us other than the backdrop literality of plans gone awry? I found this poem interesting because it managed to take a very serious situation like death and then to transfer our attention to a fly. After death, and even while you're dying, life goes on. It's not a big deal. I'm not going to post another poem in this thread, maybe another day. -- Posted by exceedinglyrare at 3:19 pm on Sep. 10, 2008 I'm hungry, give me some time to get back to this, but I will get back to it.