the back wings of the
As he often does, Williams uses these opening lines to situate the reader immediately in space. Like the establishing shot of a movie, this poem chooses to begin with its main setting: the back wings of a hospital. The use of the word back also makes it clear that this will not be a space that is regularly used, but rather something off to the side and largely unobserved.
in which shine the broken
This moment is the poem's turning point. The speaker is taking note of the way in which the shards of glass he will later describe "shine" in this forgotten area of the hospital. After his description of this area's lifelessness and covering of cinders, this moment pivots very clearly to something else. He has managed to find some small image of radiance in this drab and unremarkable place.
pieces of a green bottle
The poem ends as concretely as it begins. The speaker describes the "pieces of a green bottle" resolving the mystery he set up initially by ending the previous stanza with the word "broken." While most of the poem is spent describing the area around this broken bottle, it is still the poem's central image. It reveals the way in which its kind of brief sublimity can be found throughout these sorts of hidden urban spaces. The shine of these small pieces of glass acts as a minor beacon of hope for beauty's perseverance, even in the dullest circumstances.
