The letter poem – which does NOT appear in the Johnson nor the Franklin editions of “Complete Poems” – can be seen by clicking HERE. The first line of the letter poem certainly calls to mind Dickinson’s poem “Forever is composed of nows,” but it was the second line (“It is Centre, there, all the time”) which came to mind when I read “The ones that disappeared are back.” |
In “The ones that disappeared are back”, the speaker of the poem has heard the familiar call of birds that have returned “Precisely as in March is heard” and then mentions both Autumn and Spring as the speaker is in the “Centre” (to borrow the term from the letter poem) with the two seasons mentioned on “either side” of time: autumn (when the nuts were ripe) is in the past and the fullness of spring, May, lies ahead.
Of course, since “Forever is composed of nows” – and “now” is in the “centre” – then forever is also composed of “thens.”