"The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants --" By Emily Dickinson [Analysis]

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants --[1] At Evening, it is not --[2] At Morning, in a Truffled Hut[3] It stop upon a Spot[4] As if it tarried always[5] And yet its whole Career[6] Is shorter than a Snake's Delay[7] And fleeter than a Tare --[8] 'Tis Vegetation's Juggler --[9] The Germ of Alibi --[10] Doth like a Bubble antedate[11] And like a Bubble, hie --[12] I feel as if the Grass was pleased[13] To have it intermit --[14] This surreptitious scion[15] Of Summer's circumspect.[16] Had Nature any supple Face[17] Or could she one contemn --[18] Had Nature an Apostate --[19] That Mushroom -- it is Him![20]
Poem 1298 [F1350] "The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants" Analysis by David Preest [Poem]

As Charles Anderson points out, Emily in this poem on the mushroom limits herself to just one pictorial phrase, that he is like an Elf 'in a Truffled Hut,' before she concentrates on his sudden appearance and the fleetingness of his existence. He is 'fleeter than a Tare' or weed which springs up overnight among corn. He is always claiming he was elsewhere. He has no more 'antedate' than a bubble, and disappears as quickly. Even the grass seems pleased at the disappearance of this interloper, which summer, for all its watchfulness, has allowed to creep in. If Nature had any item which she could condemn for instability and untrustworthiness, it would be the Mushroom! In line 10 'Joy' is a variant reading for 'Germ,' and in line 19 'Iscariot' is a variant for 'apostate.
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