“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Summary

“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Themes

• 

  The Wonder of Nature

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• 

  A Celebration of Tricksters, Rebels, and Nonconformists

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants”

• Lines 1-4

  The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants—
  At Evening, it is not
  At Morning, in a Truffled Hut
  It stop opon a Spot

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  As if it tarried always
  And yet it’s whole Career
  Is shorter than a Snake’s Delay—
  And fleeter than a Tare—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 9-12

  ’Tis Vegetation’s Juggler—
  The Germ of Alibi—
  Doth like a Bubble antedate
  And like a Bubble, hie—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 13-16

  I feel as if the Grass was pleased
  To have it intermit—
  This surreptitious Scion
  Of Summer’s circumspect.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 17-20

  Had Nature any supple Face
  Or could she one contemn—
  Had Nature an Apostate—
  That Mushroom—it is Him!

  

  

  

  

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“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Symbols

• 

  The Mushroom

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• 

  Summer / Grass

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“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Metaphor

  

  

  

  

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• Personification

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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• Repetition

  

  

  

  

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“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Truffled hut
• Opon
• Tarried
• A Snake's Delay
• Fleeter than a Tare
• 'Tis
• Juggler
• Germ
• Alibi
• Doth
• Antedate
• Hie
• Intermit
• Surreptitious
• Scion
• Circumspect
• Supple
• Contemn
• Apostate

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Speaker

“The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants”

More “The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Elf of Plants: Mushrooms in Poetry — A Goodreads review exploring the significance of fungi in "The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants" and "Mushrooms" by American poet Sylvia Plath.

  • Learn More About Emily Dickinson — A Poetry Foundation biography of the poet.

  • Listen to the Poem Out Loud — A reading of (a slightly different version of) the poem. 

  • Handwritten Drafts of the Poem — Peruse the Emily Dickinson Archives where you can see drafts of "The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants" in Dickinson's own handwriting. 

  • Studies in Scale: Emily Dickinson's Envelope Poems — A fascinating Poetry Foundation article discussing Dickinson's use of the backs of old letters for writing poems—including this one!

  • Introduction to Mycology (The Study of Fungi) — A brief look at what scientists know about mushrooms today. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Emily Dickinson

  • A Bird, came down the Walk

  • After great pain, a formal feeling comes –

  • A Light exists in Spring

  • A Murmur in the Trees—to note—

  • A narrow Fellow in the Grass

  • An awful Tempest mashed the air—

  • As imperceptibly as grief

  • A still—Volcano—Life—

  • A Word dropped careless on a Page

  • Because I could not stop for Death —

  • Before I got my eye put out

  • Fame is a fickle food

  • Hope is the thing with feathers

  • I cannot live with You –

  • I cautious, scanned my little life

  • I could bring You Jewels—had I a mind to—

  • I did not reach Thee

  • I died for Beauty—but was scarce

  • I dreaded that first Robin, so

  • I dwell in Possibility –

  • I felt a Funeral, in my Brain

  • If I can stop one heart from breaking

  • I had been hungry, all the Years

  • I have a Bird in spring

  • I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -

  • I like a look of Agony

  • I like to see it lap the Miles

  • I measure every Grief I meet

  • I’m Nobody! Who are you?

  • I started Early — Took my Dog —

  • I taste a liquor never brewed

  • It was not Death, for I stood up

  • I—Years—had been—from Home—

  • Like Rain it sounded till it curved

  • Much Madness is divinest Sense -

  • My Life had stood - a Loaded Gun

  • Nature is what we see

  • One need not be a Chamber — to be Haunted

  • Publication — is the Auction

  • Safe in their Alabaster Chambers

  • Shipwreck

  • Success is counted sweetest

  • Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

  • The Brain—is wider than the Sky—

  • The Bustle in a House

  • There came a Wind like a Bugle

  • There is no Frigate like a Book

  • There's a certain Slant of light

  • There's been a Death, in the Opposite House

  • The saddest noise, the sweetest noise

  • The Sky is low — the Clouds are mean

  • The Soul has bandaged moments

  • The Soul selects her own Society

  • The Wind – tapped like a tired Man –

  • They shut me up in Prose –

  • This is my letter to the world

  • This World is not Conclusion

  • 'Twas the old—road—through pain—

  • We grow accustomed to the Dark

  • What mystery pervades a well!

  • Whose cheek is this?

  • Wild nights - Wild nights!