Great Regulars: The poem exemplifies the fact

that poetry can function without, or with few, poetic devices. It consists of 28 rimed couplets. It is quite literal and does not rely on metaphor. The Duke has a gift of rhetoric, but not poetry.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Browning's 'My Last Duchess'

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The "Buzz" sound would be the sound of the coccygeal center of spiritual energy as it begins its journey up the spine. (Or depending on the spiritual advancement of the speaker, the "om" sound might be described as a buzz.)

With the "Buzz" sound emanating from the departing soul beginning it journey from the coccygeal center, the physical eyesight begins to fail--"then the Windows failed/and then/I could not see to see."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Dickinson's 'I heard a Fly buzz'

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The dead man assumes that his girl would have mourned his passing and still might be in mourning.

But the friend replies that the sweetheart is contented, and when she goes to bed at night, she is not weeping. At this point, the reader become suspicious: how does this friend know that the dead man's sweetheart is no longer mourning and that when she goes to bed she is not weeping?

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Housman's 'Is my team ploughing'

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If the speaker is limiting being true only to himself and a beloved, he is seeking isolation from the world and just how would that improve anything?

On the other hand, if the speaker is really imploring all humanity take this vow of truth, his musings have a far greater universal appeal.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach'

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The point is that early presences give way to later ones.

Then the speaker alludes to the Garden of Eden to emphasize that even paradise cannot stay. And not only did it subside, but also "Eden sank to grief."

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Robert Frost's Golden Moments

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But ironically, instead of merely lying in the grave, the buried love "doth live." That is the magic of the speaker's talent, that he has the ability to keep his love alive with his poetry. He is once again cherishing his talent for its amazing ability to transform the dead into the living

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 31

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In truth, the skill of this poem that seems to belittle his poems once again elevates them to a high stature, while the poet covers his bases just in case a better poet does happen along after his demise. It demonstrates not only the poetic skill that he prizes so, but a certain prescience that he has neither to worry about nor confront.

from Linda Sue Grimes: Suite101.com: Shakespeare Sonnet 32

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