I heard a Fly buzz—when I died
E88120
"I heard a Fly buzz—when I died" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that meditates on the moment of death through the startlingly mundane image of a fly interrupting the speaker’s final passage.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| I heard a Fly buzz—when I died canonical | 2 |
| I heard a Fly buzz – when I died – | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T726550 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: I heard a Fly buzz—when I died Context triple: [Emily Dickinson, notableWork, I heard a Fly buzz—when I died]
-
A.
Because I could not stop for Death
"Because I could not stop for Death" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that personifies Death as a courteous suitor escorting the speaker on a reflective journey toward eternity.
-
B.
I died for Beauty—but was scarce
"I died for Beauty—but was scarce" is a short, enigmatic lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that explores the kinship between beauty and truth through a posthumous dialogue between two dead speakers.
-
C.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
D.
There’s a certain Slant of light
"There’s a certain Slant of light" is a lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that meditates on the oppressive, spiritual weight of winter light and its connection to inner despair and mortality.
-
E.
O Captain! My Captain!
"O Captain! My Captain!" is a famous elegiac poem by Walt Whitman mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln through an extended ship-and-captain metaphor.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: I heard a Fly buzz—when I died Target entity description: "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that meditates on the moment of death through the startlingly mundane image of a fly interrupting the speaker’s final passage.
-
A.
Because I could not stop for Death
"Because I could not stop for Death" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that personifies Death as a courteous suitor escorting the speaker on a reflective journey toward eternity.
-
B.
I died for Beauty—but was scarce
"I died for Beauty—but was scarce" is a short, enigmatic lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that explores the kinship between beauty and truth through a posthumous dialogue between two dead speakers.
-
C.
The Hollow Men
The Hollow Men is a 1925 modernist poem by T. S. Eliot that explores themes of spiritual desolation, paralysis, and the fragmentation of modern life.
-
D.
There’s a certain Slant of light
"There’s a certain Slant of light" is a lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that meditates on the oppressive, spiritual weight of winter light and its connection to inner despair and mortality.
-
E.
O Captain! My Captain!
"O Captain! My Captain!" is a famous elegiac poem by Walt Whitman mourning the death of Abraham Lincoln through an extended ship-and-captain metaphor.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
American literature work
ⓘ
lyric poem ⓘ poem ⓘ |
| associatedAuthorWork | The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson ⓘ |
| author | Emily Dickinson ⓘ |
| canonicalStatus |
major work of Emily Dickinson
ⓘ
widely anthologized ⓘ |
| centralImage | a fly ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| form | short lyric ⓘ |
| genre |
lyric poetry
ⓘ
meditation on death ⓘ religious poetry ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| lineCount | 16 ⓘ |
| literaryMovement |
American Romanticism
ⓘ
Transcendentalism-influenced poetry ⓘ |
| metricalPattern |
common meter
ⓘ
hymn meter ⓘ |
| narrativePerspective | first person ⓘ |
| openingLine | I heard a Fly buzz—when I died— ⓘ |
| periodOfComposition | 19th century ⓘ |
| rhymeScheme | slant rhyme ⓘ |
| speaker | a dying person ⓘ |
| stanzaCount | 4 ⓘ |
| studiedIn |
American literature courses
ⓘ
poetry analysis courses ⓘ |
| subjectMatter |
the boundary between life and death
ⓘ
the experience of dying ⓘ the failure of expected transcendence ⓘ |
| symbol |
fly as interruption of transcendence
ⓘ
fly as symbol of decay ⓘ fly as symbol of the mundane ⓘ |
| theme |
afterlife
ⓘ
death ⓘ dying ⓘ faith and doubt ⓘ perception at the point of dying ⓘ the moment of death ⓘ the ordinary versus the transcendent ⓘ |
| tone |
ambiguous
ⓘ
meditative ⓘ solemn ⓘ |
| usesFigurativeLanguage |
imagery
ⓘ
metaphor ⓘ symbolism ⓘ |
| usesPunctuation | dashes ⓘ |
| usesSoundDevice |
alliteration
ⓘ
assonance ⓘ consonance ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: I heard a Fly buzz—when I died Description of subject: "I heard a Fly buzz—when I died" is a renowned lyric poem by Emily Dickinson that meditates on the moment of death through the startlingly mundane image of a fly interrupting the speaker’s final passage.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
I heard a Fly buzz – when I died –
subject surface form:
Emily Dickinson