Speaker
The speaker—presumably the poet himself—is describing being on a picnic with his parents near a location called Eden Rock. But something isn’t quite right. The father is 25 and the mother is 23 yet the speaker is relation the narrative in the present sense, as if it were happening at the time. It is not a recollection of the past, it is a description of the present that is impossible. How could the son of such young parents possibly be describing things with such sophistication of language? The speaker reveals the answer—if obliquely—in the poem’s final lines.
The Father
The reader comes to know the character of the father almost exclusively through physical description. He is, as mentioned, a young man and wearing the fashionable Irish tweed suit of an earlier time. At his feet sits a Jack Russell Terrier still just barely a puppy.
The Mother
The mother is also presented through physical imagery. She is just a couple of years younger than her husband, reflecting traditional historical patterns. As she prepares the table setting for the picnic on a piece of stiff white cloth on the ground, her honey-blonde hair is glows beneath a straw hat and she looks pretty in her floral pattern dress.
