A Route of Evanescence
A Route of Evanescence
With a revolving Wheel--
A Resonance of Emerald--
A Rush of Cochineal--
And every Blossom on the Bush
Adjusts its tumbled Head--
The mail from Tunis, probably,
An easy Morning's Ride--
Commentary
Like a minimalist painting, today’s poem captures the essence of a scene with a few, well chosen images. The fleeting blur of a train rushing by is beautifully evoked by the almost fragmentary snapshots, gradually building up into more complete images.
There’s not really that much to say about it - you might like to compare it to Stevenson’s ‘From a Railway Carriage’1, a rather more detailed treatment of the same theme.
Glossary
evanescence: The quality of being evanescent; tendency to vanish away. cochineal: The colour of cochineal-dye, scarlet.
Dickinson-related stuff: poem #92
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
betty · 9 December 2001
This poem is about a hummingbird. It hovers, it’s colors flashing, then darts away. Hummingbird wings really do revolve.
In the first four lines, her use of words beginning with “R” suggests a wrrrrrrreing sound of how the bird rushes about. Her reference to the mail fromn Tunis describes how effortlessly and quickly the bird moves.
In Johnson’s book, it is listed by first line and also in Subject Index under Humming Bird.
Betty Van Slyke
±è±æÁß · 25 July 2004
I wonder where “Tunis”is. Was it a name of a village or town near where ED lived? or does this refer to the ancient city in North Africa?
LeMoNaPs · 20 November 2004
Hi,
I am a college student in Alabama, and I am desperately trying to find research on “A Route of Evanesence”, by Emily Dickinson. Do you have any advice to send me somewhere or a book that you know has substantial information in it about the poem. Please email me back as soon as possible. Thank you. -Ashlee
Chris Good · 20 December 2004
I think this is a very good poem. Emily Dickinson is one of my favorite authors.
Advice to Ashlee: search the internet if I were you I would check out some books out of a library on it good luck :)
Caitie
DOkum2 · 28 June 2005
Betty correctly identified the subject of this poem as a hummingbird. How could anyone think it is about a train when it describes the blossoms from which the hummingbird is drinking?
Toby Shandy
Yuri Torres · 15 November 2005
The last tow lines of the poem say it all. Hummingbirds do not migrate to North Africa, witch tells us that she is riding her bike to the mailbox. She describes how the bird is getting ready for a long ride south: by eating insects; she knows that her ride to the mailbox is an easy one compare to the hummingbird’s journey.
Yuri
Wes Grimm · 3 April 2006
There are at least two images here. (1) A mail cart rushes past blossoms leaving them to adjust their tumbled heads. (2) A humming bird, emerald and cochineal in color, takes the nectar from each blossom methodically and quickly. Together the images comment on the attitudes and responses to sexual crime and violation against women. Emily Dickenson is slightly feminist herself. Hint: What is the history of the city, Tunis, in N. Africa?