I thought we’d try this once, and see the response. Sometimes online this is difficult. This is our poetry discussion. Just write what you think of the poem in the comments. We will do this from time to time. If it has a good response, we’ll do it on a regular basis. If it doesn’t we won’t. So write your comments about the poem in the comments. This is an early Dickinson poem. It’s pretty interesting that it might remind you of another famous poem she wrote.

Retrospect

by Emily Dickinson

‘T was just this time last year I died.
I know I heard the corn,
When I was carried by the farms, —
It had the tassels on.

I thought how yellow it would look
When Richard went to mill;
And then I wanted to get out,
But something held my will.

I thought just how red apples wedged
The stubble’s joints between;
And carts went stooping round the fields
To take the pumpkins in.

I wondered which would miss me least,
And when Thanksgiving came,
If father’d multiply the plates
To make an even sum.

And if my stocking hung too high,
Would it blur the Christmas glee,
That not a Santa Claus could reach
The altitude of me?

But this sort grieved myself, and so
I thought how it would be
When just this time, some perfect year,
Themselves should come to me.

Every Writer

Richard Edwards has a BFA in Creative Writing and Journalism from Bowling Green State University and an M.S. in Education from the University of Akron. Managing editor of Drunk Duck, poetry editor for Prairie Margins, reporter for Miscellany, Akron Journal, Lorain Journal…check our About Us page for more. Also here is info on our On Classic Articles