Emily Dickinson

Transplanted

Summary


Transplanted by Emily Dickinson is a short poem that follows a small Arctic flower as it wanders down the latitudes, away from the polar hem. Puzzled, it arrives at continents of summer, skies full of sun, and bright crowds of flowers beside birds that speak in foreign tongues. The poem lingers on the wonder and bewilderment of a stranger in a lush new world, then ends on a quietly teasing note about what such a arrival really changes.

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AS if some little Arctic flower,
Upon the polar hem,
Went wandering down the latitudes,
Until it puzzled came
To continents of summer,
To firmaments of sun,
To strange, bright crowds of flowers,
And birds of foreign tongue!
I say, as if this little flower
To Eden wandered in—
What then? Why, nothing,
Only, your interference therefrom!

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Credits

Emily Dickinson was a reclusive 19th-century American poet from Amherst, Massachusetts, whose compact, dash-filled verses were largely discovered after her death. Her poems often borrow botanical imagery, and here the Arctic flower turns the idea of displacement into a small, witty parable.