At the start of the poem, the speaker recalls that, during his childhood, he liked playing near wells. He recounts what fascinated him about them: their mechanical parts, the reflections inside them, their smell, and the vegetation growing on them. He recalls a single satisfying occasion in a brickyard, when he heard a bucket drop to the bottom of a well so deep that no reflection was visible. He then recalls a very different, shallow well, overgrown with vegetation. He recounts pulling weeds away and seeing a single face reflected in the water—perhaps his own.
Next, he dwells on the sound of wells. He thinks fondly of wells that echoed his own voice, making it sound better than before. Yet another well frightened him when a rat ran across its surface. But today, the speaker says, he can no longer explore wells so freely. To do so would be considered undignified for an adult. Instead, he uses rhyme in order to see his own reflection and to hear an echo.
