101 Poems, Number 93

Favorite Poems Throughout My Life

93: “If You Were Coming in the Fall,” 1862, by Emily Dickinson (1830–86)

A college friend* and I had thought

That we had futures clear:

We’d be folk singers—famous, too!—

From year to year to year.

This didn’t really happen (duh!)—

But we once made a song

From Dickinson’s so magic verse—

How could this song go wrong?

And we performed it here and there—

And had fun doing so.

But Time advanced (and so did we)—

And dreams, of course, will go.

These words stuck with me through the years—

They would not be forgot.

And I the student learned much more

Than what I ever taught.

*Charlie Rodgers—my roommate and friend from Hiram College days, 1962–66.

Link to poem.