Source

I viewed all of the poems I used on http://www.bartleby.com/113/index3.html.

"That I Did Always Love"

THAT I did always love,
I bring thee proof:
That till I loved
I did not love enough.
That I shall love alway,	5
I offer thee
That love is life,
And life hath immortality.
This, dost thou doubt, sweet?
Then have I	10
Nothing to show
But Calvary. In “That I did always love,” Emily Dickinson suggests that without love no one can truly live. Until someone feels love, it is not understood. Dickinson posits the notion that love is everlasting and if someone does not ever feel love then they will have a life of suffering. Throughout the poem, Dickinson displays figurative language which helps to convey the idea that one must have love to have life. One example of a metaphor that portrays that one needs love in order to have a good life is “love is life.” The repetition and emphasis of the word love helps display the theme and idea of the poem. Because Dickinson was not ever married, I believe she wrote this poem to show how much she longed for love and marriage which could be associated with the reason she was a recluse because she felt she couldn’t have a happy life without love.

"Heart, We Will Forget Him!"

HEART, we will forget him!
You and I, to-night!
You may forget the warmth he gave,
I will forget the light.
When you have done, pray tell me,	5
That I my thoughts may dim;
Haste! lest while you’re lagging,
I may remember him!

“Heart, we will forget him” is a poem which conveys the idea that someone is trying to forget someone they love. In the first stanza the person tells the heart to forget about the idea and feeling of the significant other and they will worry about forgetting the way they look. The second stanza of the poem posits the notion that someone is telling their heart to hurry and forget someone else because their mind is not able to forget them until their heart does. The entire poem is given personification throughout because a heart cannot literally forget someone, a person must forget them. I believe that Dickinson may have written this poem after a love she had for someone had failed. Dickinson could have been trying to forget them which is shown in this particular poem.

"If You Were Coming in the Fall"

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,	5
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,	10
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,	15
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.	20

Emily Dickinson’s poem, “If you were coming in the fall,” suggests that she would do anything for anybody to love her even if it meant dying. “If you were coming in the fall, I’d brush the summer by,” is part of one of the first three stanzas that shows Dickinson would rush her life in order for her to meet the person that would love her. The fourth stanza conveys the idea that Dickinson would give up life in order to experience love from someone. The final stanza of this poem conveys the idea that Dickinson is left with the sad realization that she must wait forever for love and it may never happen which will gnaw at her heart forever. The goblin bee in the final stanza represents the continuous pain Dickinson feels that stings her heart because of her longing for love. Personification is displayed throughout the poem. Two examples of personification in this poem are “taste eternity” and “brush the summer by.” I feel that Dickinson wrote this poem to express her unhappiness and to show how badly she wanted to be loved. In my opinion, Dickinson would do anything for love, possibly even commit suicide.