Angle
In the poem "Angle’’, the narrator addresses an unnamed "you’’, asking that person to go to him. The narrator poses some conditions and every stanza represents one of the conditions put by the narrator. The first condition is for the person to go when hers of his grief is over. This may transmit the idea that the person in question must, first of all, get over the pain of losing the narrator and start living their lives once more.
The second stanza enforces this idea by mentioning how the tears have to turn into dew before the person in question can go and when the sighs and sobs have reduced to almost disappearing. These two stanzas transmit the idea that the person in question must first learn how to deal with the pain of losing someone before being allowed to reunite with the person they miss.
In the last stanza, the narrator imagines the moment he will be reunited with the person he loves and he compares her with a mother, who will take him in his arms and sooth his pain.
When spring goes by
The poem begins with the narrator describing a hill where ice still lingers in various places. The rest of the hill is described as being idyllic and the perfect place for birds to linger. The most important bird is the robin that can be heard and the narrator describes the way the robin "talks’’.
Slowly, the woods come to life and the robin becomes even more animated, singing and making his voice heard.
The poem "When the Spring goes by’’ is a short one, of only two stanzas. The narrator describes the beginning of spring and also the way in which nature comes to life slowly during spring. The process is not described as being a gradual one but rather an abrupt one, where nature changes from one day to the other. The description of the change may also be used here to show how life can sometimes change drastically in a short period of time, more than often even overnight.
At the cedars
The poem begins with the narrator dressing a man named Baptiste and mentioning one of his daughters named Virginie.
The narrator talks then how he and a group of men tries to tear down a tree but the tree remained fixed in the ground no matter how hard they tied to tear it. When the men managed to tear down the tree, they were thrown into the river and they had to try and hold on onto the log. The narrator and ten other men were thrown into the water while only one man remained on the shore, safely. The man on the shore tried to help those in the water but he ended up being injured by one of the logs and his face became bloody.
The incident was seen by two girls who were picking berries in the woods but they were not frightened by the events. Instead, the boarded their boat and tried to save the men in the water. Unfortunately, the boat sunk and the two girls died.
The Half-Breed Girl
The poem presents a girl who presumably had a troubled past she can’t forget. The girl is unable to rest and she has troubles sleeping at night. During winter, the memories haunt her even more and she sees appearances from her past everywhere she goes. Summer also makes her remember the beautiful times in her life but she is still unable to escape the horrible things that haunt her. The girl once lived in a big city but the life there was too much for her and she felt suffocated by that lifestyle. While the girl is now a young woman, she still can’t escape the memory of her past and she is haunted by those memories.
The woman is surrounded by nature but no matter how hard she tries, it is impossible for her to forget her past. The poem ends with the conclusion that the girl will be able to forget her past only in death.
