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 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.

Next 10 Poems

• Emily Dickinson : If Your Nerve, Deny You
• Emily Dickinson : I'll Clutch-and Clutch
• Emily Dickinson : I'll Send The Feather From My Hat!
• Emily Dickinson : I'll Tell You How The Sun Rose, --
• Emily Dickinson : I'm Ceded-i've Stopped Being Theirs
• Emily Dickinson : I'm Nobody! Who Are You?
• Emily Dickinson : I'm Saying Every Day
• Emily Dickinson : I'm Sorry For The Dead-today
• Emily Dickinson : I'm The Little 'heart's Ease'
• Emily Dickinson : I'm 'wife'-i've Finished That

Previous 10 Poems

• Emily Dickinson : If Wrecked Upon The Shoal Of Thought
• Emily Dickinson : If What We Could-were What We Would
• Emily Dickinson : If Those I Loved Were Lost
• Emily Dickinson : If This Is 'fading'
• Emily Dickinson : If The Foolish, Call Them 'flowers'
• Emily Dickinson : If She Had Been The Mistletoe
• Emily Dickinson : If Recollecting Were Forgetting
• Emily Dickinson : If Pain For Peace Prepares
• Emily Dickinson : If Nature Smiles-the Mother Must
• Emily Dickinson : If My Bark Sink