The Fly

The Fly

Looking at the general works of William Blake , the poem The Fly holds true to one of his more popular themes about man and God . Furthermore it is presented in a very simple style yet the meaning goes deeper . The poem presents a fly as an organism that has no worries and no concerns for everyday is summer , a time for fun and play . That is until his life ended with a simple brush of a hand . However , going into the poem shows us a deeper subject , a man 's life

. The speaker seems to have an epiphany after his action towards the fly . He starts looking at himself and questioning whether a fly and a man have more in common . He lives by simply enjoying himself with no examination of what he is doing and where he is headed . Thus , to paraphrase lines 13-16 , without a close look at our life we are merely existing and not living - we are good as dead . Just like the fly , a mere insect , that does not examine its life but exists merely to satisfy his physiological needs - to eat , drink procreate , sleep . The speaker realizes that living the way he does makes him no better than a fly . Understanding this , the speaker comes to the conclusion that if it was easy for him to snuff the life of a fly and he is like the fly , then his life could just as easily be extinguished by a higher being , or God , with a thoughtless hand as well

The painting presents in close focus a lone fly in an open space . The fly is seen in its common stance , its proboscis together as if in the act of eating . At first glance , the immediate impact of the painting on the poem is to give a concrete visual of its subject , a fly . However looking at the meaning of the poem and following the understanding that the fly and the speaker are one and the same , the painting as well as the poem takes on a new meaning . The painting seems to magnify the minuteness of a single life in the vast scheme of things . The fly is unmindful of its surrounding area , just as a man who had not examined his own life has no care for others around him . Just like the fly , a man who does not care for others is alone . The fly in an open area vulnerable to outside powers or forces , seems to communicate that the speaker is in the same boat . He is in a vulnerable position where his time on this earth may end unexpectedly . This gives an impression that at the end , the speaker may be contemplating about doing something to find meaning in his life . He is already beginning to question the quality of his the life he is living . The poem and the painting both tell one important thing in relation to each other , that the fly and the speaker may...