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
 What portion of me I 
 Could make assignable, -- and then 
 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.