"Like her the Saints retire," By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

Like her the Saints retire,[1] In their Chapeaux of fire,[2] Martial as she![3] Like her the Evenings steal[4] Purple and Cochineal[5] After the Day![6] "Departed" -- both -- they say![7] i.e. gathered away,[8] Not found,[9] Argues the Aster still --[10] Reasons the Daffodil[11] Profound![12]
Poem 60 [F150] "Like her the Saints retire" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

Emily's 'nature riddle' poems are among some of her most baffling. But as she herself once said in a letter to Sue, 'In a Life that stopped guessing, you and I should not feel at home (L586),' so, at a guess, the 'her' in the poem is the fuchsia. The purple and crimson of the fuchsia resemble the splendour of the haloes or mitres of the saints as they return to heaven from visiting the earth. They also resemble the colours of the sunset. People say that both the saints and the light of the sunset have "departed." This is true, but the motionless aster and the daffodil with its bulb deep in the ground are evidence that saints and the sunlight have only been temporarily 'gathered away' into hiding and so will return.
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