Emily Dickinson

Emily Dickinson was born on December 10, 1830, in Amherst, Massachusetts, and spent her life there. She was the daughter of Edward Dickinson, a distinguished lawyer who served in the United States House of

I heard a Fly buzz when I died

by Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

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16

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

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Poetry Trivia

Question:

What poet's epitaph reads, "And alien tears will fill for him / Pity's long broken urn, / For his mourners will be outcast men, / And outcasts always mourn"?

Answer

Oscar Wilde. The lines are taken from his poem "Ballad of Reading Gaol."

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