<span>The speaker
in Emily Dickinson’s “If You Were Coming in the Fall” is lonely, and is desperately
waiting for the return of her lover. She is longing for her lover who has been
gone for a long period of time, and is still willing to wait for him. The
speaker emphasizes in the first stanza that if her lover will come back, she will
be happy. She compared her happiness to a housewife’s satisfaction of killing a
fly. The second stanza posits that if her lover would come back in a year, she
would fold times into smaller pieces for her fear that one year would be
extended. This signifies her eagerness to see her lover again that if there is
an assurance of seeing him in death, she would be more than willing to die.
This is given emphasis on the fourth stanza. Lastly, it is signified in the
last stanza that the uncertainty of her lover’s comeback hurts him like the
sting of a bee.</span>
