Time Change (Symbol)
This poem takes place in late fall or winter, after the end of daylight savings time—meaning that the clocks have been set back by an hour. This resetting of the clocks means that night falls at an earlier time. This "loss" of time symbolizes the elusiveness and capriciousness of time generally, especially from the speaker's perspective. The speaker reflects on the way that her relationship, despite the happiness it may have once granted her, is now relegated irrevocably to the past. Just as the changing of the clocks feels arbitrary and sudden, so does the normal forward movement of time. At the same time, the changing of the clocks is logical and predictable, and is controlled by humans. In this sense, it differs from the human experience of time, which the speaker experiences as unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Darkness (Symbol)
Darkness is, on a literal level, an effect of the changing clocks: the turning back of the clocks leads to a loss of daylight and to lengthened nights. Symbolically, though, the external darkness of wintertime represents the speaker's depression. In fact, this darkness is contrasted with metaphorical light: the speaker observes that the changing clocks "stole light from my life." Thus if light represents the happiness of her relationship, darkness represents her feelings following the end of that relationship. Meanwhile, the speaker's claim that darkness will be more or less constant and unrelenting suggests that her sadness, too, feels unending and unrelenting.
