American Literature / Unit 10 AML 0919 short lesson, about 20 seconds
"I heard a Fly buzz — when I died"
Captions available
The idea
The speaker narrates her own deathbed, with the watchers waiting for the last onset and the king to be witnessed, and then a fly interposes with a blue uncertain stumbling buzz and the windows fail. The promised revelation is displaced by an insect.
In practice
A fly, where a vision was expected.
Where people slip
The interruption is the poem's argument.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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