Some things that fly there be--
Birds--Hours--the Bumblebee--
Of these no Elegy.
Some things that stay there be--
Grief--Hills--Eternity--
Nor this behooveth me.
There are that resting, rise.
Can I expound the skies?
How still the riddle lies!
Emily Dickinson
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In "Some things that fly there be," Dickinson conveys her befuddlement at how God can seemingly reconcile finite things that move and progress ("things that fly") and self-contained, inert things ("things that stay".) In death, God transforms physical substance that is moving through and bound by time to something immaterial, self-contained, and that does not move or progress by virtue of being inherently whole and complete. Hence, "still" in the final line denotes the tranquility of material in such a state.
The connecting thread of the poem's structure is the number three; there are three trimeter stanzas with three lines each. The number three is essential to the concept of the Trinity. Taking the structure and meaning of the poem together, the poem represents how God, through sublimating matter into spirit, reconciles the disparate concepts of finitude and eternity.
