poetry texts, poem archive at plagiarist.com

I love this poem!

this poem is really sweet.quite sad too

This poem was really wierd. I like it, but I think that the poet needs a therapist. Let's make a little less sense now.

The fly - W.Blake

Thought is very strange. It is life, since it makes possible a Subject. But it wants death, because it wants to go beyond itself. It wants infinite, where there is no object to think to, where it is the destruction of thought itself. But after all, it is not sad. It is joyous and great. The whole power and pleasure is somewhere between death and life.

A comparison of the life of a man to that of a simple fly whom he had disturbed. The man truly wonders if his life is as simple as that of the fly...or is the fly more than just a fly, The Man? A fly's life is short and sweet, The Man wonders if his life is as sweet. Or possibly as short.

I believe what's in question here is the mortality of man. The speaker asks whether his life and death are as insignificant as this fly's life and death if he is as unaware as the fly is of his mortality. If he is not aware of his mortality, then his death is just as casual as the fly's.

The poem very much embodies the sentiments of the romantic era in which it was written. That is, it suggests that people are just part of the whole process of nature and of life and that the endless cycle of life and death is inevitable. It suggests that everybody's passing is just as significant or insignificant as everyone else's, whether man or fly or any other creature.