Category Archives: insect

“I heard a Fly buzz – when I died” (591) by Emily Dickinson [w/ Audio]

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I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
   The Stillness in the Room
 Was like the Stillness in the Air -
   Between the Heaves of Storm -

The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -
   And Breaths were gathering firm
 For that last Onset - when the King
   Be witnessed - in the Room -

I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
   What portion of me be 
 Assignable - and then it was 
   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 -

“The Fly” by William Blake [w/ Audio]

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Source: USGS Bee Inventory and Monitoring Lab
Little fly,
 Thy summer's play
 My thoughtless hand
 Has brushed away.

Am not I
 A fly like thee?
 Or art not thou
 A man like me?

For I dance
 And drink and sing,
 Till some blind hand 
 Shall brush my wing.

If thought is life
 And strength and breath,
 And the want
 Of thought is death,

Then am I 
 A happy fly,
 If I live,
 Or if I die.