An Emily Dickinson Poem---';If you were coming in the fall'; Help on understanding ';Goblin bee';

I can't understand the last stanza and the line that says ';It goads me, like the goblin bee'; can anyone help?





Here is the poem:





IF you were coming in the fall,


I 鈥檇 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 鈥檇 wind the months in balls,


And put them each in separate drawers,


Until their time befalls.





If only centuries delayed,


I 鈥檇 count them on my hand,


Subtracting till my fingers dropped


Into Van Diemen鈥檚 land.





If certain, when this life was out,


That yours and mine should be,


I 鈥檇 toss it yonder like a rind,


And taste eternity.





But now, all ignorant of the length


Of time鈥檚 uncertain wing,


It goads me, like the goblin bee,


That will not state its sting.





Any help is much appreciated! Thanks :)An Emily Dickinson Poem---';If you were coming in the fall'; Help on understanding ';Goblin bee';
Bees are a prevalent element of Dickinson's image repertoire. Sometimes they are used as symbols of industry, sometimes symbols of summer and plenty, sometimes of time's passing. It seems like the latter is one of the meanings here - time flies, but like a malevolent bee, will not make clear when something will occur.





On the other hand, the ';goblin'; may not be malevolent, but just uncanny, as the speaker _wants_ the sting - which is the moment in which she will see the person that the poem is addressed to. In the penultimate stanza, that moment is linked with death (ie: the speaker and the addressee will meet after death), giving rise to the painful image of the meeting being a sting.





The rhyme of wing and sting is also curious, as it raises the question of what the ';it'; in the final stanza refers to - is it ';time'; or ';time's uncertain wing';? If it's the latter, then it's hard to see how the wing becomes a bee.





There is also the insect image chain to consider: in the first stanza, the speaker can brush the summer away ';As housewives do a fly.'; By the end, the speaker is passive and time is on the attack, as it has become more uncanny and threatening through the poem (the speaker's fingers drop off like centuries in stanza 3, for example).





The alliteration of ';state its sting,'; with its staccato 't's, (like little skin pricks) also draws to attention the oddness of the image - how does a bee 'state its sting' - by showing it? By using it? But it also seems to have already stung, as ';goad'; is another word used for insect bites and stings. But ';state'; does not necessarily mean ';say.'; It comes from a root meaning 'place' or 'stand' (as in ';reinstate';). So time will not put its sting in place - it won't bring ';time's sting,'; which is death (in the Bible, I'm sure this phrase is used).





Consider also that, when a bee stings, it dies. So, if we read the ';it'; as referring to ';time's uncertain wing,'; we could say that ';time refuses to give up its uncertainty, by stinging and therefore dying.';





Emily Dickinson also wrote many drafts of her poems, and sometimes the published version you are looking at will not be the only one available. Check Thomas H. Johnson's ';Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson'; for other potential versions. You could also look at a concordance of her work (a concordance lists all the words used by a particular author, how many times they are used, and in which texts) to see other uses of the words goblin, bee, state and sting.An Emily Dickinson Poem---';If you were coming in the fall'; Help on understanding ';Goblin bee';
My take on this is that she's willing to make increasing sacrifices if time would only move forward so that she can be with the unnamed person she desires to see. Each stanza is darker and that is the beauty of the development of this poem.





But--a goblin bee cannot sting. It's a ghost. It represents that we cannot know when we will die. As much as she waits for the sting [of death] to possibly unite her with the person she misses--it's maddening because she doesn't know how long into the future that day will come, hence ';time's uncertain wing.';
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)





http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/amlit/dick鈥?/a>





Emily Dickinson Comprising 597 poems of the Belle of Amherst, whose life of the Imagination formed the transcendental bridge to modern American poetry.





http://www.bartleby.com/113/





http://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/dickins鈥?/a>





Extra Resources.





http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/155





Because I could not stop for Death (712) by Emily Dickinson





http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMI鈥?/a>





About Our Emily Dickinson Collection





On the left you'll find 3 poetry books published by Emily's family after her death. Many in the academic community feel these books were poorly edited and are not true to Emily Dickinson's vision. Regardless, these are the most familiar versions for the public at large, the versions most often taught in school. We've also listed some more popular poems individually as well. In total our Emily Dickinson collection is over 400 poems.





http://www.online-literature.com/dickins鈥?/a>





Emily Dickinson's Death Poems ( Free Essay )





Emily Dickinson's world was her father's home and garden in a small New England town. She lived most of her life within this private world. Her romantic visions and emotional intensity kept her from making all but a few friends.





http://www.freeessays.cc/db/37/pya173.sh鈥?/a>





Emily Dickinson's Views On Mortality





http://www.echeat.com/essay.php?t=27223





Term paper on Emily dickinson's because i could not stop for death





http://www.termpapergenie.com/EMILYDICKI鈥?/a>





Good luck.





Kevin, Liverpool, England.