"If You Were Coming in the Fall," by Emily Dickinson, expresses how, for a lover, anticipation without certainty causes anguish and misery, contrasting imagery and rhythm in the first four and last stanzas. In the first four stanzas, the imagery, repetition of words, and ballad meter invoke an illusion that dramatizes the insignificance of time. The simple, dreamy phrases "brush the summer by," "wind the months in balls," "only centuries," and "toss [life] yonder like a rind," show the speaker's dreamy tone, in response to actually difficult situations. The speaker doesn't give her problems her consideration, and uses imagery to respond unrealistically because, while dreaming, she does not have to deal with reality. Moreover, the repetition of the word, "if," at the beginning of each of the four stanzas creates a pensive tone that takes her farther away from reality. The speaker's use of ballad meter also adds to the dreaminess of the tone, creating a song, as she fantasizes about......
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Approximate Word Count: 383
Approximate Pages: 2 (260 words per double-spaced page) |