Elf of Plants

The Mushroom is the Elf of Plants –

At Evening, it is not –

At Morning, in a Truffled Hut

It stop upon a Spot

As if it tarried always

And yet its whole Career

Is shorter than a Snake’s Delay

And fleeter than a Tare –

‘Tis Vegetation’s Juggler –

The Germ of Alibi –

Doth like a Bubble antedate

And like a Bubble, hie –

I feel as if the Grass was pleased

To have it intermit –

This surreptitious scion

Of Summer’s circumspect.

Had Nature any supple Face

Or could she one contemn –

Had Nature an Apostate –

That Mushroom — it is Him!

Emily Dickinson 1830 - 1886