If you were coming in the fall

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

What do you know about rhythm and meter in poetry and songs? Do you know any specific meters? Think about rhythms in the choruses of songs or in nursery rhymes and try to describe them.

Teaching Suggestion: This exercise can be used as a launching point to help students understand the metrical form of Dickinson’s poetry, and it could serve as a connection to other poets, including the Romantic poets. If students have had some exposure to Shakespeare, it might be helpful to bring in an example of iambic pentameter from his plays as you review a definition and/or examples of meter. Nursery rhymes provide quick, clear examples of meter. You might also encourage students to look up lyrics to songs with which they are familiar and to sound out the meter.

• This webpage from Oregon State provides a video, images, and text describing various metrical terms that will be useful when doing scansion of this and other poems.
• This page from Poetry Foundation offers a simple definition of the ballad stanza with other poems that follow this format.

Differentiation Suggestion: Younger students or those without much poetry background might find some of the ballad examples in the Poetry Foundation definition such as “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe more accessible than Shakespeare or songs. As a scaffolding approach, you might use these examples to build confidence in analyzing meter before moving on to Dickinson’s poetry.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the poem.

What does it feel like to miss someone you love? How does it feel when you don’t know when or if you’ll be with that person again? Can you think of any images that might help you describe what it feels like to have this feeling?

Teaching Suggestion: Consider modeling with your own experience; creating a metaphor, simile, or image to describe an emotion; or using an example from another piece of literature, film, music, or visual art. This question will allow students the opportunity to understand the feeling Dickinson is trying to express even if they don’t understand her words or images right away.