The Cave (Allegory)
The cave is an allegorical representation of motherhood, and specifically early motherhood. It is utterly disorienting and frightening, and the speaker describes herself exploring it in isolation. Through the allegory, she portrays giving birth and motherhood as physically challenging, even physically dangerous. At the same time, she portrays them as emotionally perilous experiences, full of newness, uncertainty, loneliness, and even disgust. At the same time, the cave is described as being, if not beautiful, then certainly interesting. Motherhood may be difficult, but the speaker is drawn to it nevertheless.
Though the cave most overtly symbolizes the speaker's state, it also appears to represent the experience of being newly born. The speaker even compares it to a womb, and she implies (through the symbol of the candle, discussed below) that she and her child are exploring the cave together. Thus, the poem draws a parallel between parenthood and babyhood: both are periods of discovery, disorientation, and exploration.
Furniture (Symbols)
The mother, explaining her feelings of protectiveness for the baby, promises that she has decorated the cave in which they both find themselves. She tells him that "I have hung our cave with roses, / With soft rugs." These furnishings symbolize comfort and safety, all the more poignantly because they ornament an uncomfortable and unsafe space. Essentially, the speaker is telling her child that she will do what she can to protect her child from discomfort and unpredictability. By referring to these as "The last of Victoriana," the speaker alludes to the Victorian age and its sentimental attitudes towards domesticity and motherhood. She hopes to provide her child with the kind of home the Victorians imagined, even while she knows she is merely offering memorabilia of a failed utopian vision.
The Candle (Symbol)
The candle referenced in the title represents the speaker's child. It offers guidance and comfort in the darkness of the cave—and the child offers his mother companionship during the difficult moments of motherhood. This lets us know that, even though being a mother is stressful for the speaker, the presence of her child is not in itself stressful. Instead, she sees these challenges as something to be endured and explored as a pair, with her child lighting the way through the emotional darkness. But the candle is also vulnerable: it nearly goes out, in a nod to the delicacy and riskiness of caring for a child.
