Emily Dickinson

Along the Potomac

Summary


Along the Potomac is a short poem by Emily Dickinson that begins with a childhood memory of a woman's death. Years later, her only son goes up from the Potomac, his face all victory, to look upon her grave. The speaker imagines the slow turning of seasons until bullets cut his life short. Pride, Paradise, and the haunting image of mother and son passing through the speaker's mind give the verse a quiet, lingering ache.

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WHEN I was small, a woman died.
To-day her only boy
Went up from the Potomac,
His face all victory,

To look at her; how slowly
The seasons must have turned
Till bullets clipt an angle,
And he passed quickly round!

If pride shall be in Paradise
I never can decide;
Of their imperial conduct,
No person testified.

But proud in apparition,
That woman and her boy
Pass back and forth before my brain,
As ever in the sky.

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was an American poet of the nineteenth century, known for her compact, startling verse and unconventional dashes. This poem reflects the shadow of the Civil War, whose battles were fought near the Potomac River during her lifetime.