If you were coming in the Fall
Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the fall,
I ’d brush the summer by
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.
If I could see you in a year, 5
I ’d wind the months in balls,
And put them each in separate drawers,
Until their time befalls.
If only centuries delayed,
I ’d count them on my hand, 10
Subtracting till my fingers dropped
Into Van Diemen’s land.
If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I ’d toss it yonder like a rind, 15
And taste eternity.
But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time’s uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee, 20
That will not state its sting.
Making Meanings
Poems by Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the Fall
1. Do you think the hopes expressed in the poem are fairly common, or are they
far-fetched? Explain.
2. How would you describe the speaker’s situation? How does she feel about it?
3. What two things are being compared in the simile in the first stanza?
4. In the second stanza, what domestic articles are the months compared to? Why
does the speaker put them in separate drawers?
5. Van Dieman’s Land has come to mean places on the globe farthest away from us.
Given this information, how would you paraphrase the third stanza?
6. How would you describe the speaker’s tone in the first four stanzas? How does
it change in the fifth stanza, where her exaggerations disappear? What goads, or
pushes, her against her will?
7. In folklore, a goblin is a tormenting creature. What do you think Dickinson
is suggesting when she says that the bee is a goblin and will not “state” its
sting?
Choices
1. Collecting Ideas for a Comparison/Contrast Essay
One interesting topic for a comparison/contrast essay would be an examination of how one of Emily Dickinson's poems compares with a poem by an earlier poet - perhaps "Huswifery" by Taylor, "Upon the Burning of Our House" by Gradstreet, or "Thanatopsis" by William Cullen Bryant. Take notes on how one of these poems compares with one of Dickinson's poems.
2. Echoes of Dickinson
Write a poem that treats one of the themes that engaged Emily Dickinson: love and loss, the spiritual life, death and immortality, nature, or the power of the imagination. You might even use one of Dickinson's lines as your opener. Experiment with metaphors, similes, and slant rhymes. Try out Dickinson's style of punctuation and capitalization, or invent your own unique style.
3. Hymn to Her
Dickinson let the strict meters she found in her hymnbook provide the basic beat for her poems, but the variations she introduced gave her poems subtlety and prevented monotony. In a brief essay, analyze at least two of her poems to show how she uses this traditional hymn meter:
8 syllables in line 1
8 syllables in line 3
6 syllables in line 2
6 syllables in line 4
Then show how she also uses a short hymn meter of 6, 6, 8, and 6 syllables. To see how closely some of the poems conform to a hymn meter, you might try singing "If you were coming to the Fall" to the tune of "O God, Our Help in Ages Past."
4. Dickinson Onstage
Prepare a script for a performance called "An Evening with Emily Dickinson." In the script, let Dickinson tell about her life, her views of poetry and language ,and her feelings about nature, faith, and eternity. Include in your performance readings of selected poems.
5. Book of Poems
Dickinson sewed the final copies of her poems into the form of small booklets. To make your own small book, fold four pages of white paper in half. Then, gather them at the fold, which will give you sixteen pages. Select poems you would like to reproduce - either your own, or some favorite poems by Dickinson or by other poems. On the first page, design a book cover including a title. Then, copy one poem onto each the remaining pages. Try to match your penmanship or calligraphy with the feelings conveyed in the poems. Finally, sew your book along the fold.