The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Dove, Rita. “Vacation.” On the Wing: American Poems of Air and Space, edited by Karen Olsen, University of Iowa Press, 2005.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem (1-27) from which the quotations are taken.

“Vacation” is a contemplative poem written by the contemporary poet Rita Dove. It was first published in 2005 as part of the edited collection On the Wing: American Poems of Air and Space. The poem consists of 27 lines that describe waiting in an airport before boarding a flight. The author describes the pastime of observing those waiting around, intuiting various things about the different social types randomly thrust together on a flight.

The poem offers a personal reflection on the experience of waiting and of social quietude. It ruminates on where the mind goes in the deactivated “no time” (2) of waiting, temporarily itinerant at whatever point in life one finds oneself. Rita Dove, in this gentle contemplation, explores how fickle and delicate human consciousness is moment to moment.