Speaker
The speaker of the poem is not the protagonist, but still takes on an active role in the text. While initially the speaker focuses on the man's frustrations and fears about the woman, she goes on to comfort and validate the woman. She reminds her that people are not "homes" and that she is her own "strange" and "beautiful" person. She also notes that there is no point in the woman trying to make the man stay by changing herself, as she has her own inherent value. Without overtly critiquing the man, the speaker is able to show the faults in his point of view, as she shows the woman's strength and uniqueness, qualities he seems unable to appreciate. In this way, the speaker never physically appears in the poem, but looms large in the reader's mind.
Man
The other main character of the poem is an unnamed man. He is primarily described in terms of his desire to reshape who the woman is. He alternates between acknowledging the intensity of his attraction to her and stating his unease about how overwhelming he finds her to be. It is strongly suggested that he will eventually depart, being unable to love the woman for exactly who she is. He is shown as being essentially unable to see the woman clearly.
Woman
The main character of the poem is an unnamed woman. She is depicted as free-spirited. While the speaker primarily describes the comments of the man in the text, his words ultimately place the woman at the center. He claims that she is often too much for him. However, the speaker states, at the conclusion of the poem, that she is "strange" and "beautiful," showing that he has missed something about her. She makes an effort to suppress the qualities that he finds objectionable, but in the end, given the speaker's comments, she seems to move towards embracing who she really is.
