The Fly
The Fly - context Summary
Published in 1794
Written for Songs of Experience and first published in 1794, Blake's "The Fly" uses a brief conversational voice to probe mortality, empathy and the fragile boundary between human and animal life. The speaker’s casual act of killing a fly becomes a moral reflection: he recognizes himself in the insect, questions the nature of thought and death, and ends by accepting life or death with a calm, mystical resignation.
Read Complete AnalysesLittle Fly, Thy summer's play My thoughtless hand Has brushed away. Am not I A fly like thee? Or art not thou A man like me? For I dance And drink, and sing, Till some blind hand Shall brush my wing. If thought is life And strength and breath And the want Of thought is death; Then am I A happy fly, If I live, Or if I die.
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