Summary
The first line of the second stanza piggy-backs off of the last line of the first, to say that the speaker and company feel fortunate "that [they] may look at them, in their gardens where / The summer ripeness rots," them being the residents of Beverly. This stanza establishes the season, transitioning between summer and fall. The flowers and fruits of Beverly gardens are rotting, but the speaker observes that even the rot and garbage in Beverly is arranged attractively.
Analysis
Though much of the sound work in this poem is subtle and understated—even the rhyme scheme, the second and fourth lines of each stanza containing an end-rhyme, easily fly under the radar given the length of the lines—Brooks deploys some overt alliteration on the second line of this stanza. "The summer ripeness rots. But not raggedly," draws attention to the "r" sound, which ramps the reader into something that almost resembles a growl. The "r" returns with the repetition of the word "refuse."
This stanza emphasizes the juxtaposition of characteristically "ugly" objects and their unexpected beauty as they appear in the lawns of Beverly Hills, Chicago. The "rot," though it is still decomposing organic matter, is in fact not ragged. The refuse, or trash, is not messy, but rather neat, and radiant in its neatness.
