Little Fly
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing;
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath;
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
William Blake’s wrote a poem called “The Fly.” The story starts out with the fly being happy and playful until the human killed it. From there, the human ask him“Am not I A fly like thee?"
and Or art not thou A man like me?" considering he could die like the fly by some unknown being. Then the story switches to the fly perspective. The fly is then confronting with the human, pointing out his opinion on life and death.
During this poem, Blake talks about the similarity between a fly and a human. In the first stanza, the human brushed away the happy fly with his “thoughtless hand”. The human “thoughtless hand” could symbolize the human not having second thoughts of the moment he killed the fly. If the human can carelessly kill a fly, can God do the same to him. Also, the human killing the fly represents himself being the fly’s God because the fly does not know when its life ends. In stanza 2, the person who brushed the fly away ask him “Are human being life more important than the fly? He also ask if their life is the same as the fly because they do the same thing. Human are like any other animal or insects, we're all going to die someday, so we're going to live our life by dancing, drinking, singing, and ect., until an unseen hand (God) strikes us down (shown from line 9 through 12). Stanzas 4 symbolizes happiness after death and stanza 5 shows a reason for believing that a human life may be worth more than the life of a fly.
The moral of the poem is to live life to the fullest. We are capable of thinking about the meaning of our lives. That's what separates us from creatures on Earth and makes it possible for us to be happy even if death was near. In this century, human being are worried about their death even though they’re young. Therefore, Blake wants the reader to realize death as an important cycle in life.
Thy summers play,
My thoughtless hand
Has brush'd away.
Am not I
A fly like thee?
Or art not thou
A man like me?
For I dance
And drink & sing;
Till some blind hand
Shall brush my wing.
If thought is life
And strength & breath;
And the want
Of thought is death;
Then am I
A happy fly,
If I live,
Or if I die.
William Blake’s wrote a poem called “The Fly.” The story starts out with the fly being happy and playful until the human killed it. From there, the human ask him“Am not I A fly like thee?"
and Or art not thou A man like me?" considering he could die like the fly by some unknown being. Then the story switches to the fly perspective. The fly is then confronting with the human, pointing out his opinion on life and death.
During this poem, Blake talks about the similarity between a fly and a human. In the first stanza, the human brushed away the happy fly with his “thoughtless hand”. The human “thoughtless hand” could symbolize the human not having second thoughts of the moment he killed the fly. If the human can carelessly kill a fly, can God do the same to him. Also, the human killing the fly represents himself being the fly’s God because the fly does not know when its life ends. In stanza 2, the person who brushed the fly away ask him “Are human being life more important than the fly? He also ask if their life is the same as the fly because they do the same thing. Human are like any other animal or insects, we're all going to die someday, so we're going to live our life by dancing, drinking, singing, and ect., until an unseen hand (God) strikes us down (shown from line 9 through 12). Stanzas 4 symbolizes happiness after death and stanza 5 shows a reason for believing that a human life may be worth more than the life of a fly.
The moral of the poem is to live life to the fullest. We are capable of thinking about the meaning of our lives. That's what separates us from creatures on Earth and makes it possible for us to be happy even if death was near. In this century, human being are worried about their death even though they’re young. Therefore, Blake wants the reader to realize death as an important cycle in life.
William Blake's "The Fly" I believe is describing an actual fly. Why I think that he is actually describing a fly is because he states in the poem "For I dance and drink & sing," a fly does all of those things. When Blake says dance he means fly, drink he means actually drink, and sing he means the buzzing sound flies usually make. The fly could also represent a person, but why would Blake compare a person to a fly? Blake could've also been referring to an angel, but does any of us actually know besides Blake? Well in my opinion I think that Blake is talking about an actual fly because I dont see how he could compare a person to a fly. This poem I believe represents a fly that is trying to decide if he is happier dead or alive. The fly cant decide because he has never been dead before but he has had close incounters to people's hands, or fly swatters, like in the poem Blake writes "Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing."
ReplyDeleteWhen I interprete this poem more closely I can also see that it could be an angel he is writing about because an angel has been alive and dead, so they're trying to decide if they're happier alive or dead. The poem could also be explaining an accident like a child playing during summer and something happens to them and now they're an angel and looking back on life and deciding which lifestyle they would rather be in. William Blake I believe is an excellent writer and no matter how hard we all try and figure out his poems none of us are going to get them. All of Blake's poems I think have deep meanings and they have to do with his life, well some of them. "And the want of thought is death;" that line is very powerful, I feel like thats talking about how somebody wants to be dead, or they like thinking about death. Another connection he could be trying to make is to a murder, but why a murder? Honestly, I dont think anyone knows.