Learning Objectives
For pages 139–146, 312
In studying this text, you
will focus on the following
objectives:
Literary Study: Analyzing
rhyme. Analyzing
personification.
Reading: Analyzing sound
devices Clarifying meaning.
If you were coming in the Fall
My life closed twice before its close
The
Soul selects her own Society
by Emily Dickinson
If you were coming in the Fall/My life closed twice before its close/The Soul selects her own Society
139
Before You Read
If you were coming in the Fall
My life closed twice before its close
The Soul selects her own Society
Connect to the Poems
In brief, reflective poems, Emily Dickinson wrote about such diverse subjects as
immortality, loss, solitude, and society. Choose one of these abstractions and quickly
write your immediate thoughts and feelings about it.
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Build Background
•
Emily Dickinson was born into a prosperous, religious, and well-educated family in
Amherst, Massachusetts. She spent most of her life in solitude at her family home.
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Dickinson was unknown during her lifetime because her friend, the editor of the
Atlantic Monthly, advised her not to publish her poems.
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Dickinson’s poems are characterized by her unusual punctuation and
capitalization, her short lines and stanzas, and her use of figurative language.
Based on the information above, write two questions you have about Emily
Dickinson’s life and poetry.
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Set Purposes for Reading
As you read Emily Dickinson’s poems, look for the ways in which she experiments to
create a new poetic style.
140
Literary Element Rhyme
Rhyme is the repetition of sounds at the ends of words. Full rhyming words have
identical vowel sounds in their final accented syllables. Dickinson also uses slant
rhyme, or approximate rhyme, in which the rhyming sounds are similar but not exact.
Prove and glove and today and victory are examples of slant rhyme. The pattern of
rhyme in a poem, or rhyme scheme, can be designated by letters. A different letter
of the alphabet signals each new rhyme (for example, ababab). With a partner, list
several examples of full rhyme and slant rhyme. Discuss ways in which slant rhyme
might contribute to a poem’s effect.
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Reading Strategy Analyze Sound Devices
Sound devices are techniques that appeal to the ear. They create a sense of rhythm,
emphasize certain sounds, or add to the musical effect of poetry. Rhyme is one type
of sound device. Others include alliteration, consonance, and assonance.
•
Alliteration is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words or
accented syllables, such as “singing songs of sun and sea.”
•
Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds at the ends of words or
accented syllables, as in “then with cracked hands that ached.”
•
Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in conjunction with dissimilar
consonant sounds, as in the repeated i sound in “the mountain at a given
distance.”
As you read, use the chart below to note examples of different kinds of rhyme and
other sound devices.
Rhyme
Alliteration
Consonance
Assonance
“If you were
coming in
the Fall”
“My life closed
twice before
its close”
“The Soul
selects her
own Society”
If you were coming in the Fall/My life closed twice before its close/The Soul selects her own Society
141
If you were coming in the Fall
If you were coming in the Fall,
I’d brush the Summer by
With half a smile, and half a spurn,
As Housewives do, a Fly.
Literary Element
5
Rhyme Circle the words in the
second stanza that produce a slant
rhyme. What is the sound that
these words share?
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10
If I could see you in a year,
I’d wind the months in balls—
And put them each in separate Drawers,
For fear the numbers fuse—
If only Centuries, delayed,
I’d count them on my Hand,
Subtracting, till my fingers dropped
Into Van Dieman’s Land.1
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Reading Strategy
Analyze Sound Devices Underline
the letters in the highlighted line
that create consonance.
1. Van Dieman’s Land is the former name for Tasmania, an island that is part of
Australia.
142
If you were coming in the Fall
15
20
If certain, when this life was out—
That yours and mine, should be
I’d toss it yonder, like a Rind,
And take Eternity—
But, now, uncertain of the length
Of this, that is between,
It goads me, like the Goblin Bee—
That will not state—its sting.
Read and Discuss
With a partner, read aloud
the last stanza of the poem.
As you listen to each other
read, underline examples of
alliteration. Compare your
results and discuss how the
alliteration contributes to the
poem’s meaning. How does the
alliteration work with the simile
of the Goblin Bee?
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READING CHECK
Question
What is it that “goads” the speaker “like the Goblin Bee” at the
end of the poem?
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If you were coming in the Fall
143
My life closed twice
before its close
My life closed twice before its close—
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me
Reading Strategy
Analyze Sound Devices On the
lines below, give an example of
assonance from the first stanza.
5
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So huge, so hopeless to conceive
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.
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Literary Element
Rhyme What is the rhyme scheme
of the second stanza? ___________
With a partner, discuss how the
rhyme scheme and sound devices
support the meaning of the lines.
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READING CHECK
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Summarize
What is this poem about?
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144
The
Soul selects
her own Society
The Soul selects her own Society—
Then—shuts the Door—
To her divine Majority—
Present no more—
5
10
Unmoved—she notes the Chariots—pausing—
At her low Gate—
Unmoved—an Emperor be kneeling
Upon her Mat—
I’ve known her—from an ample nation—
Choose One—
Then—close the Valves of her attention—
Like Stone—
Literary Element
Rhyme Underline examples of
rhyme in the first stanza. What is
the rhyme scheme of this stanza?
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Reading Strategy
Analyze Sound Devices The first
and third lines of the final stanza
are longer in both sounds and
syllables than the second and
fourth lines.
How does this reinforce the
meaning of the poem?
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READING CHECK
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Clarify
What is the central metaphor of this poem?
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The Soul selects her own Society
145
After You Read
If you were coming in the Fall
My life closed twice before its close
The Soul selects her own Society
Connect to the Poems
Look back at the freewrite you did on page 140. In which poem do you notice
similarities between Emily Dickinson’s thoughts and your own? What connections
do you see?
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Literary Element Rhyme
Look back at the poems, and find one example of full rhyme and one example
of slant rhyme. Make a note of the examples in the spaces below. Then describe
their effects.
Full Rhyme
Example: ________________________________________________________________________________________
Effects: __________________________________________________________________________________________
Slant Rhyme
Example: ________________________________________________________________________________________
Effects: __________________________________________________________________________________________
Reading Strategy Analyze Sound Devices
Use the sentence frames below to summarize how sound devices affect meaning
in the poems.
1. Alliteration in “If you were coming in the Fall” emphasizes the lightness or
playfulness of tone in the first stanza through the repetition of
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2. Assonance in “My life closed twice before its close” emphasizes the focus of
the speaker on herself by repeating
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3. Consonance in “The Soul selects her own Society” emphasizes the finality of
the speaker’s decision through
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For more practice, see page 312.
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