"If she had been the Mistletoe" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

If she had been the Mistletoe[1] And I had been the Rose --[2] How gay upon your table[3] My velvet life to close --[4] Since I am of the Druid,[5] And she is of the dew --[6] I'll deck Tradition's buttonhole --[7] And send the Rose to you.[8]
Poem 44 [F60] "If she had been the Mistletoe" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

When Samuel Bowles received his copy of this poem, no doubt with a rose attached, he may have thought that Emily had sent him a rather similar puzzle already, namely poem 33. Presumably he knew that mistletoe was venerated by the Druids, and perhaps worked it out for himself as follows: "She has actually sent me a rose, not some mistletoe, but says 'Suppose the rose I sent you like the mistletoe had stayed in Amherst, and that I had come as the rose. Well then, How gay upon your table My velvet life to close.' But since she is naturally a Druid or mistletoe sort of person and claims she lacks the freshness of a rose, she has decided not to come in person, but to send me this traditional buttonhole of a rose."
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