If You Were Coming in the Fall,
If You Were Coming in the Fall, - meaning Summary
Waiting Stretched by Uncertainty
Dickinson’s poem explores the psychology of waiting when the timing of reunion is unknown. The speaker imagines various certainties—arrival in a season, a year, centuries, or after death—and describes how each known timeframe would make anticipation manageable: brushing off summer, storing months, counting centuries, or discarding life itself. These hypothetical certainties contrast with the present ignorance, which makes longing acute and irritating. The closing image compares uncertain waiting to a persistent "goblin bee" whose sting is undefined, conveying how open-ended time intensifies ache and unrest.
Read Complete AnalysesIf you were coming in the fall, I’d brush the summer by With half a smile and half a spum, 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.
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