I heard a Fly buzz — when I died

“Safe in their Alabaster Chambers– (216)” by Emily Dickinson (1859, 1861)

Dickinson revised her poem, “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—,” in 1859 and 1861. The poem frames death outside the perspective of the mourners and the deceased. Dickinson utilizes a 3rd person omniscient voice for her speaker. Like “I heard a Fly buzz—when I died—,” “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—” questions the afterlife.

In both versions of “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—,” Dickinson portrays the dead as still inhabiting the mortal plain yet unnoticed by it (Lines 2-3). The dead people “sleep” in the 1859 version while they “lie” in the 1861 revision (Line 4). Dickinson calls both variations of the deceased “meek members of the Resurrection” as if the Church played a joke on them with the promise of an unobtainable immortal life.

The 1859 “Safe in their Alabaster Chambers—” maintains that cynical tone towards God. The “light laughs the breeze” radiates from a castle above the dead, invoking the image of the Kingdom of Heaven. God finds amusement in the dead humans’ unfulfilled expectations (Lines 8-9). The speaker ends the poem lamenting that good judgment and reason died too.