Dickinson 511 Essay, Research Paper
511
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,
For fear the numbers fuse-
If only Centuries, delayed,
I’d count them on my Hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Deimen’s Land.
If certain, when this life was out-
That yours and mine, should be
I’d toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity-
But, now, uncertain of the length
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee
That will not state- its sting.
The Love That Would Wait Forever
In poem 511, Emily Dickinson uses brilliant diction, capitalization, repetition, hyperbole, and imagery to brings to life a speaker who is longing to be reunited with the love of her life. The speaker is willing to wait “Centuries” (3.1) if need be. The speaker wants so strongly to be with her love, that she will do whatever it takes. The only catch to the situation, however, is that the speaker doesn’t know what it takes. There is no definite amount of time to be waited out, and the uncertainty of what must be done, in order to see her lover again, is what pains the speaker.
Emily Dickinson, using her poetic genius, opens poem 511 in an extremely powerful way. The first stanza of the poem accomplishes myriad things. In the first line, the reader is introduced to the subject of the poem. “If you were coming in the Fall,” (1.1) the “you” in this line is the subject we know the poem is revolving around. In this first line the reader is also clued in to the fact that the speaker and “you” are separated. In order for the “you” to be “coming” there must be a separation between them.
The first line not only introduces the subject of the poem, but also sets up a situation where the speaker can express more concretely the way she feels. The speaker states that “if you were coming in the fall” that she would “brush the Summer by “With half a smile, and half a spurn,” These two lines convey the lengths to which the speaker will go to be reunited with “you”. Summer is capitalized in this line drawing meanings and importance, summer carries with it positive images such as sun and laughter. It is the time of the year that most people wait for, yet the speaker is willing to “brush” that time away with “half a smile” and “half a spurn”. The word
“half” in this stanza shows how she is willing to “brush” the summer by “with half a smile” because she would see “you” as soon as summer was gone, and half a spurn because the time still wouldn’t go by fast enough.
The speaker expresses the desire the speaker has to be reunited with her “you” by showing the indifference with which she pushes the happiest part of the year by. To punctuate the claim made by the speaker, Dickinson gives concreteness to the poem. The speaker “brush{es} the summer by” in the same way “house wives do a Fly”. By rhyming “brush the summer by” with “fly” the connection between the two is made. Summer is being related to a fly, the image of an irritant that won’t go away fast enough. By showing the example of the fly, Dickinson conveys just how strongly the speaker wants the time to go by, and just how strongly she wants to be reunited with “you”. Because of the depth of the longing the speaker experiences, one can assume that “you” is someone she loves dearly.
The first stanza establishes many things for the poem, the speaker desperately wants to be reunited with someone she loves very much. In the next stanzas, the speaker’s desire to see “you” is intensified. If the speaker had to wait a “year” she would gladly do so. “if only centuries, delayed” (3,1) their meeting, she would wait. The speaker is willing to wait centuries if at the end they would be together. Dickinson’s capitalization of the word “Centuries” makes it apparent to the reader that this word is key to the theme of this stanza. “Century”, a hyperbole or exaggeration, is used in this poem to convey the depth of the speaker’s love for “you”. One century is one hundred years, very few people live to be one century, old let alone multiple “Centuries” old. Not only is the speaker willing to wait her life time, she is willing to wait far beyond that. Using this word, and emphasizing it, Dickinson makes it clear to the reader that this “you” is the love of the speakers life. This is the person who she wants to be with so strongly that she will waste her entire life if need be. She would “toss {this life} yonder, like a rind” (4.1) a rind being the bitter, tough, & undesirable part of a fruit that must be discarded before the real sweet fruit can be tasted. In the case of this poem the image is showing how being reunited with
“you” is the sweet fruit while the time separating them, (her life) is the undesirable “rind. She would discard her life like this “rind”, “if certain, when this life was out” (4.1) that they would be together.
The speaker will do all the things mentioned in the poem if it will bring her lover back. The, if, is where the heart of the poem lies. Each stanza begins with “If’. As with the capitalization of “Summer” and ” Centuries”, the use of repetition as well as capitalization draws emphasis and importance to this word. “If’ , synonymous with “granted or supposing that” is stated before each of the scenarios stated in the first line of each stanza. Supposing that “you were coming in fall” she would wait, she would also wait her whole life, supposing that she were “certain” about their reconciliation. However she is not “certain”. She has spent the entire poem thus far showing how deeply she cares for this person, how long she would wait, and all the things she would give up “If” only she were “certain” they would be together. At first glance this may be read as just a sweet love poem; a woman professing her undying love to a man who she is separated from, however the uncertainty presented in these stanzas, and punctuated in the last stanza present this poem as being clearly different, in truth a poem of a pained speaker, one hurt by uncertainty.
The speaker has kept the poem directed at the things she is willing to do to be reunited with her “you”, also the focus has been directed at the future rather than the present. While talking about the future the speaker shares in an almost detached way what she is feeling. The reader can see how much she cares about “you”, but only because of the things she is willing to do to be reunited with him. The fist line of this stanza , however, opens with “But, now”, and the stanza continues to describe what the “uncertainty” does to “me” (the speaker), changing the entire trend of the poem thus far. By bringing the focus into the present, and by focusing the last stanza on the speaker herself, the space between reader and speaker, that had been so diligently upheld, is breached. In this last stanza there are no more barriers between the reader and speaker, and the reader is actually let to
experience the true pain that the speaker is feeling. The speaker uses the word “goads” in the final stanza to describe how she is effected by the “uncertainty” mentioned in stanza five line one . “Goad” meaning anything that pricks or wounds, used in the last stanza shows how the uncertainty of what she must do to see “you” wounds, or pains her. The poem changes from a poem of love and longing to a poem tinted with pain. The uncertainty wounds the speaker “like a goblin Bee-” That will not state- its sting”. Instead of knowing the sting or amount of time she must wait, she is goaded by the question of what she has to do to be with her lover. And in this last stanza we are aloud to see how much the speaker really is pained, and that the reason for it is the “uncertainty” surrounding what she loves more than her own life, “you”.
The poem concludes with the image of the speaker being wounded by the “uncertainty” of how long she must wait. She feels no pain about waiting as long as she has to. If it takes centuries, she will “count them on {her} hand subtracting” (3.2/ 3.4) the days until she sees him again. But because there is no date she is left to sit and wonder and not know. Giving her more grief than any other alternative would.
This is a poem in which Emily Dickinson paints for the reader, the picture of a woman in love with a man she is separated from, and does not know when she will be reunited with; if ever. This portrait of the pain she is going through, due to the uncertainty of the situation, is beautifully hidden behind the eloquently plaiced imagery, and diction. Dickinson has managed to almost camouflage the speakers pain, behind what at first glance seems to be a flowery love poem. Only when one is willing to look closely at the picture laid before us, can the true spirit of the poem be understood.