Banish Air from Air

Banish Air from Air - meaning Summary

Matter Defies Division

Dickinson presents a short, compact meditation on the futility of trying to separate or nullify natural forces. The speaker imagines extreme acts—banishing air, dividing light, breaking substances into cubes or pellets—only to find that elements reassert themselves: odors come back, flame persists, steam “flits.” The poem registers human impotence against material continuity and the resilience of sensory phenomena. Sparse, kinetic images turn scientific-sounding operations into metaphors for limits of control, suggesting that nature’s cohesion and return cannot be overcome by will or technique.