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The Reader's Atlas · Compare · Death's Two Voices

I Felt a Funeral, in my BrainI Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

Emily Dickinson had a deep obsession with death, yet she approached it in uniquely different ways each time. When you place "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" next to "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died," they may initially appear to tackle the same theme—depicting death, giving it a sense of ceremony, and observing an ending.

  • Poets

    Emily Dickinson

  • Years

    —

  • Chapter

    Death's Two Voices

§01 The thesis

I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain & I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

A reader's case for putting these two side by side — what each carries, and what they argue when they sit on the same page.

"I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" depicts an internal disaster. The speaker isn't dying physically; rather, they are losing their sanity, and Dickinson illustrates that breakdown through the lens of funeral rituals. The mourners, the rhythmic beating of drums, the creaking coffin—all of this unfolds within the confines of a skull. It’s a poem that captures the sheer terror of mental disintegration. In contrast, "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" portrays a physical death, with the speaker surrounded by grieving family, the atmosphere heavy with the anticipation of something sacred. Yet, instead of a profound moment, a housefly arrives. One poem transforms a mental collapse into a grand funeral, while the other reduces an actual death to a trivial, buzzing nuisance. Together, these poems create a diptych exploring the thin line between existence and non-existence. The stark difference between them reveals more about Dickinson's psyche than either poem could convey on its own. "Funeral" dramatizes dying as a collapse of consciousness, while "Fly Buzz" frames it as a failure to reach something transcendent.

§02 The dialectic axes

The two poems on four axes

Each axis isolates one specific vector — speaker, form, image, closing move — and reads the two poems against each other on that single dimension.

01Speaker

Poem A · I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

The speaker of "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" is alive yet coming apart at the seams. They are not the one being mourned; instead, they are the very location of the funeral — the ceremony unfolds *within* their mind, making them both the one grieving and the one being grieved for. Their voice carries an urgent, overwhelmed tone, almost bordering on panic, as sensations flood in one after another.

Poem B · I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

The speaker of "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" is already dead—or at least telling the story from beyond the grave, reflecting on their final moments. This perspective creates an unusual sense of calm. They've taken care of their will, said their goodbyes, and are now in a state of waiting. The tone remains steady, even detached, until the fly makes its entrance.
02Central image

Poem A · I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

The funeral in "Funeral" is purely metaphorical. There's no real corpse or mourners — the coffin, the heavy boots, and the tolling bell all symbolize the stages of a mental breakdown. The strength of the poem lies in how Dickinson conveys the heaviness of those metaphors, making you feel them as if they were tangible.

Poem B · I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

The fly in "Fly Buzz" is completely literal — it’s a real insect, making a real buzz, and it intrudes in a real way. Dickinson describes it with three exact adjectives: "blue, uncertain, stumbling." That level of detail hits hard. The most ordinary creature in the room is the one that oversees death.
03Scale

Poem A · I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"Funeral" takes on a cosmic scale. By the end, the heavens resonate like a bell, and the speaker's existence has transformed into just an ear, listening to that bell. This personal breakdown leads to a vast and dizzying experience.

Poem B · I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

"Fly Buzz" contracts. It starts in a room buzzing with anticipation for the divine — "the king" is on his way — and ends with a lone insect blocking the light. The shift from the grand to the trivial highlights how deflating death can feel.
04Closing move

Poem A · I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain

"Funeral" ends abruptly in mid-fall: "And then a plank in reason broke / And I dropped down and down" — the speaker descends into their own unraveling mind. The last line, "And hit a world at every plunge," leaves us feeling unmoored instead of offering closure. There’s no safe landing or pause, just the relentless descent.

Poem B · I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died

"Fly Buzz" concludes with a poignant failure of perception: "And then the windows failed, and then / I could not see to see." The repetition of the verb — *see to see* — showcases Dickinson's sharp precision. It's not merely that vision ceases; the ability to perceive anything at all ceases. Death isn’t theatrical; it’s just the finality of seeing.

§03 Synthesis & departure

The shared ground and the divergence

Shared

Both poems, penned by Emily Dickinson, showcase her signature common meter—a hymn-like pattern alternating between eight and six syllables—and both center around the theme of funerals. Each poem presents a speaker on the brink of death, probing the feelings associated with that crossing. Neither poem provides solace; they both reject religious comfort, albeit in different manners: "Funeral" substitutes prayer with a sense of numbness, while "Fly Buzz" replaces the anticipated divine presence with the drone of an insect. Sound also plays a crucial role in both poems' structure. In "Funeral," the mourners tread, the drum beats, and the bell tolls—sound becomes a tool for mental anguish. Conversely, in "Fly Buzz," the fly's buzz obscures the light and brings an end to vision. In both instances, sound underscores the moment of ultimate loss. Additionally, both poems employ repetition to evoke dread. Phrases like "Treading, treading," "beating, beating," and "and then... and then" illustrate the relentless, mechanical nature of dying, whether it be mental or physical. The formal similarities accentuate the stark thematic differences.

Where they diverge

The sharpest difference lies in the direction of the drama. "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" expands outward—from the speaker's mind to the cosmos. By the final stanza, "all the heavens were a bell / And Being but an ear." The collapse of a single mind transforms into a universal disaster. The scale is both vast and tragic. In contrast, "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" moves inward and downward. The poem begins with a near-cosmic stillness—"the stillness in the air / Between the heaves of storm"—before focusing on a single buzzing insect. The anticipated figure never appears. Instead, "there interposed a fly / With blue, uncertain, stumbling buzz." This deflation is the central theme. The speakers also exhibit different postures. The speaker of "Funeral" is passive and overwhelmed, subjected to external forces—the mourners walk over them, the drum beats at them, and the box is lifted above them. Meanwhile, the speaker of "Fly Buzz" has already arranged their keepsakes and made their plans, appearing almost composed—until the fly disrupts everything. One speaker is destroyed by sensation; the other is merely, quietly, interrupted.

§04 A reader's order of operations

Which to read first

If you started with "I Felt a Funeral in My Brain" and it left you reeling, dive into "I Heard a Fly Buzz When I Died" next — just be ready for something completely different. While "Funeral" bombards you with noise and a sense of vastness, "Fly Buzz" creates a sense of unease through its stillness and simplicity. The fly's single buzz serves a similar purpose as the funeral procession, but it's a far quieter moment, lacking the weight of a cosmic bell. If "Fly Buzz" felt nearly too subdued to you at first, "Funeral" will unleash a full-blown chaos. Both poems shine when read aloud — the rhythmic pounding of "Funeral" and the deflating buzz of "Fly Buzz" resonate in distinct ways when listened to, compared to how they read on the page.

§05 Reader's questions

On I Felt a Funeral, in my Brain vs I Heard a Fly Buzz — When I Died, frequently asked

Answer

Yes — these two Dickinson poems are often paired in high school and university courses because they tackle the same theme from contrasting perspectives. Teaching them together allows students to appreciate how Dickinson's use of consistent form (like common meter, slant rhyme, and dashes) can create vastly different emotional responses.

§06 More from this chapter

How English speaks to the end

6 comparisons in this chapter

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