Emily Dickinson Lexicon

Potomac, proper n. [Algonquin, possibly meaning 'place of burning pine', 'they are coming by water', or 'something brought'.]

River in the eastern United States; waterway that flows from West Virginia into the Chesapeake Bay; site that was blockaded in the Civil War from October 1962 to January 1963; [fig.] mortality; life on earth; (see ED letters).