by Emily Dickinson (1830 - 1886)

Dying
Language: English 
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.

Confirmed with Poems by Emily Dickinson. Third Series, ed by Mabel Loomis Todd, Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1896.

See also Anna Clyne's setting "Between the Rooms"


Text Authorship:

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

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Set in a modified version by Norman Dinerstein, Brian Holmes, Marjorie M. Rusche, Donald Ibrahim Swann, William Jay Sydeman.


Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2026-02-25
Line count: 16
Word count: 91