Follow up assignment
Jared Earnshaw
Period 2 Doklan
“If You Were Coming in the Fall” by Emily Dickenson
Overview: This poem is about a girl who is waiting for someone. She describes how long she will wait.
Then she compares time to being a buzzing bee that she knows it will sting her she just doesn’t know
when.
If you were coming in the fall,
I'd brush the summer by
Lines 1+2: She is saying that she would skip
summer if it would bring fall closer sp she could
see you.
With half a smile and half a spurn,
As housewives do a fly.
Lines 3+4: She is making a comparison to getting
rid of summer as housewives do flies.
If I could see you in a year,
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,
Subtracting till my fingers dropped
Into Van Diemens land.
Lines 5-8: She is saying she will separate the
months so that they do not run together and
combine into an unconquerable task.
If certain, when this life was out,
That yours and mine should be,
I'd toss it yonder like a rind,
And taste eternity.
But now, all ignorant of the length
Of time's uncertain wing,
It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting
Lines 13-16: If she has to wait forever she would.
Lines 9+10: She says that she will count away the
time and would still wait.
Lines 11+12: She will wait even until death if it
meant she would see you.
Lines 17-20: She is saying that time is annoying her
because it passes so slowly. Se then says that the
event will happen just like if you are in a room
with bees, eventually you will be stung.
Significant Literary Devices: “As housewives do a fly.” This is a simile comparing what housewives
do to flies and what she would do to summer if she could.
“It goads me, like the goblin bee,
That will not state its sting” This is also a simile comparing time and an event at an uncertain
time and a bee and not knowing when it would sting.
Tone: The tone of the poem is that of longing. She has to wait for an unknown amount of time
for a person. She is also determined because she is still waiting.
Sources:
This is a poem about love, time and separation. It is addressed to and is about someone who is
away. The usual assumption is that the speaker is a woman, because of the domestic metaphors
(the housewife and the fly, the balls of yarn), because the writer was a woman, and, I think,
because it is traditionally women who wait.
Four of the stanzas begin with "if," a word that indicates uncertainty. This poem plays off
certainty and uncertainty against each other. She is certain of her love for him; what she doesn't
know is when they will be together and for how long. The time of absence gets longer in each
stanza, progressing from fall in stanza one to a year to centuries to eternity in stanza four.
But the length of absence is unimportant, provided his return and their reunion are certain. She
dismisses the importance of how long he may be absent by trivializing it; she brushes off the
absence of a summer as a housewife would shoo a fly away. "Spurn" connotes contempt or
scorn. A year is reduced to months, a smaller unit, and those are compared to balls of yarn to be
stored separately. Storing them separately is like counting off individual units, making them
more manageable and giving her a sense of control. "Befalls" continues the image of balls. She
minimizes a century-long wait by modifying "century" with "only" and calling his absence
"delayed." "Delayed" implies that eventually he will return. She counts time on her fingers,
rather than on balls. The reference to Van Diemen's land indicates someplace far away. Van
Diemen's land is the old name for Tasmania, an island off Australia. Why her fingers would drop
is puzzling. One suggestion is that she has in mind a riddle: one person would curl her fingers
under and then ask where they had gone; the answer was Van Diemen's Land or "down under."
The fourth stanza introduces a different time, eternity or timelessness. She would willingly die if
they would be together forever. She compares her mortal life to a "rind." As the rind is the outer
skin which protects the food, so her body (the "rind") contains a spirit or essence which would
continue after her death. She continues the food metaphor with "taste." There is a tension and
irony in the juxtaposition (placing next to each other) of "If" and "certain." Why are these two
words incongruous?
The final stanza abruptly introduces a new train of thought, which is indicated by the first word
"but." The previous stanzas were hypothetical--if; that is, they discussed imagined possibilities in
the future. In this stanza she is in real time, "now." She deals with her reality, which is a
frightening one. She calls time "uncertain"; she does not know (is "ignorant") what time or
timelessness is or will bring. Her ignorance distresses or "goads" her. She uses the metaphor of a
wing for the length of time to pass. The threatening potential of time continues the wing
metaphor in her comparison of time to a "goblin bee." The bee threatens with its painful sting.
But time's threat is even greater because unstated; it leaves her in uncertainty, doubt, distress.
The degree of threat which time presents is suggested by "goblin;" a goblin is at best
mischievous, at worst evil.
This is also a poem about anxiety, even dread.
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/english/melani/cs6/fall.html
The poets of the nineteenth century wrote on a variety of topics. One often-used topic is that of
love. The theme of love has been approached in many different ways. Emily Dickinson is one of
the numerous poets who use love as the subject of several of her poems. In "if you were coming
in the fall," Emily Dickinson uses several metaphors to enhance the theme of the time spent
waiting for love.
In this poem Emily Dickinson uses metaphor that paints a picture about lost love. It shows that
time does not matter when you're waiting for your love. "If you were coming in the fall, /I'd
brush the summer by," give us the feeling that summer does not matter if she knew that love was
coming in the fall. It suggests that if she could forget about the lonely time she spent in summer
then she would. The comparison of fall and summer paints a pretty picture, emphasizes that love
is beautiful and is worth waiting for.
Emily Dickinson shows that it is not easy to wait for love. "If I could see you in a year, /I'd wind
the months in balls," this creates a picture that the months spent waiting can be crumble up if she
knew love was coming in a year. "And put them each in separate drawers, /Until their time falls,"
the crumble up balls can be put in different drawers and be forgotten, if she only knew when her
love will come. The feeling of crumbling up hurts, but as time pass and as she waits for love, it
shall heal slowly.
WriteWork contributors. "Emily Dickenson novel analysis "If you were coming in the fall""
WriteWork.com. WriteWork.com, 23 February, 2004. Web. 10 Dec. 2012.
http://www.writework.com/essay/emily-dickenson-novel-analysis-if-you-were-coming-fall