If You Were Coming In The Fall...

by Ben Harrison

Poem #529

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,
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 Diemen's land.

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.


This is one of my favorite poems by Emily Dickinson. It is a simple love poem that envelops a deep meaning.

Is it about an unrequited love? Or about two lovers who have been separated?

Dickinson speaks with such optimism throughout the first four stanzas, that it warms the heart of the reader. She uses absurd metaphors to describe the insignificance of time. We are enlightened by her undying resolve. The rhythm of the poem itself is one of positivity. It seems as if Dickinson carries us with her into a dream world, where the fourth dimension is negligible.
However, the bitterness of reality dawns upon her in the last stanza. She describes how "all ignorant of the length of time's uncertain wing" a lover is left, hanging in a vacuum of loneliness.