"The Fly" by William Black

 "The Fly" by William Black

"The Fly" is a poem written by the English poet William Blake. It was published as part of his collection Songs of Experience in 1794.

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.

About William Blake

William Black (1757—1827) was a poet and engraver. He went to school long enough to learn to read and write, leaving at age 10. Beyond that, he was homeschooled by his mother, Catherine. Blake was inspired as a child by artists such as Raphael, Maarten van Heemskerk, Michelangelo, and Albrecht Dürer, whose work he was introduced to through books and prints. At the age of 10 his parents enrolled him in the drawing school at the Strand. At that time, Blake, who enjoyed reading, started to write his own poetry.

Summary-

In this poem, the speaker begins by describing swatting away a fly. He then begins to ponder the similarities between himself and the insect. 

He questions whether he is essentially the same as the fly, as both are susceptible to the random and often brutal forces of life that can easily extinguish them. The speaker notes that, like the fly, he too enjoys life until some unforeseen force could abruptly end his existence.  The poem concludes by suggesting that if the essence of life is thought, strength, and breath, then the lack of thought is equivalent to death. 

Structure and Form 

‘The Fly’ by William Blake is a five-stanza poem that is divided into quatrains, or four-line stanzas. The poem is quite simple and utilizes short lines that are no more than four words long and some as short as two words long. The poem uses a fairly simple Rhyme scheme that varies somewhat throughout.

Literary Devices

In this poem, the poet makes use of a few different literary devices. For example: 

• Imagery : This literary device occurs when the poet uses particularly interesting descriptions. For example, “Till some blind hand / Shall brush my wing.”
• Juxtaposition : This can be seen when the poet compares two things intentionally. For example, the poet’s life and the fly’s life.
• Metaphor: This occurs when the poet makes a Comparison between two things without using “like” or “as.” For example, he compares himself to the fly in the line, “Am not I / a fly like thee?”