"The Fly" by William Blake - tips/analysis

another very cute poem, though with a very philisophical question behind it, no? our lives may be so insignifficant to others, our play and joy easily brushed away and dismissed. and are we not all the same, the fly is the man and the man the fly, we all are alive and we all live on earth, this is all we need to know really, there is no difference. this same message/lesson could be applied to prejudice and discrimination, as well as animal cruelity or even just interpersonal skills. it's a very placid poem, one which could fit almost any circumstance, in any place, at any time.

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This is a very sophisticated poem that shows the really beauty and nature within our everyday life. it is a very critical analysis on whether or not we fit into everyday life. William Blake is a very generous writer for supplying us with such amazing works.

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I think that this is another very interesting poem where Blake invites the reader to place themselves into the position of another, in this case the fly. It is interesting how he uses the language in the third stanza to change viewpoint as though he is in the body of the fly, provoking the reader to seriously consider the consequences of their actions. Blake appears to want the reader to learn from this and to consider the feelings of others, no matter how insignificant they may appear.

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The speaker, in this poem, speculates on whether he is or is not like the fly, carelessly swept away by the speaker's hand. The fly may have little, if any, conscious awareness of himself and his mortality and, if the speaker shares that freedom from awareness, then life or death is of little consequence. If, on the other hand, the fly does have human awareness then it is a different story.

Blake was a highly religious man with a unique take on heaven and hell that I am not even going to dare to get into lest I sink in a sea of complexity and flounder there.