How to Format Lyrics:

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  • Lyrics should be broken down into individual lines
  • Use section headers above different song parts like [Verse], [Chorus], etc.
  • Use italics (<i>lyric</i>) and bold (<b>lyric</b>) to distinguish between different vocalists in the same song part
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About

Genius Annotation

This poem expresses the speaker’s painful wait for the return of her lover, anxiously passing time by counting in larger and larger units—starting in seasons and ending in eternity. She is able to wait but unable to count how long.

Structure
The stanza structure is that of a religious hymn, known as common meter. The pattern in each of the five stanzas is broadly alternating iambic tetrameter (that is four iambs or metrical feet per line) and iambic trimeter, (that is three metrical feet per line). A iamb or metrical foot comprises one unstressed followed by one stressed syllable. This creates an elegant, even tread. However, the pattern isn’t maintained strictly. The even rhythm and regular ABCB rhyme scheme in each stanza is at odds with the subject; the pain and stress of waiting.

Language and Imagery
The voice is that of a first person speaker addressing an absent lover, referred to in the second person as “you”. It is unclear as to whether this is a fiction devised by Dickinson, or if she is expressing her true hidden feelings for a lover.

The frequent dashes are characteristic Dickinson, as is the lack of other punctuation; no commas or full-stops. This creates a choppy rhythm with frequent caesurae or pauses, to express emotion and uncertainty.

Typically, she uses inventive, unexpected imagery. So, for example, there is the simile of the Goblin Bee, goblins being a mischievous, malicious creatures of folklore that dupe or entice humans into trouble. The ideas seem deliberately bizarre and unconnected, for example she cites Van Dieman’s Land (the original name for Tasmania) and in the next stanza the speaker is tossing away of a piece of rind.

(It is worth referring to Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market), which deals with the subject of malicious goblins.

See The Poetry of Emily Dickinson; Atlantic Review
BBC Podcast ‘In Our Time’ – Emily Dickinson

Q&A

Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning

  1. 17.
    Dawn
  2. 21.
    A Book
  3. 27.
    Mine
  4. 32.
    If you were coming in the fall
  5. 34.
    Proof
  6. 47.
    Why
  7. 66.
    A Day
  8. 72.
    Autumn
  9. 87.
    Real
  10. 91.
    Refuge
  11. 100.
    Dying
  12. 111.
    Lost
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