The trees have more than I to spare.
The sleek, expensive girls I teach,
Younger and pinker every year,
Bloom gradually out of reach.
The pear tree lets its petals drop
Like dandruff on a tabletop.
The narrator of this poem, presumably Snodgrass himself, describes how the changing of another season has altered him physically and mentally. As the season turns to spring, he jokingly comments that the trees are fuller, as is he. This suggests that, as the narrator has gotten older, he has perhaps gained a bit of weight, too. The narrator then continues by commenting (perhaps rather inappropriately) on how the young women he teaches change more and more each year by growing younger and “pinker,” which makes them more and more unattainable. In this way, the narrator suggests that, in his younger years, he may have perhaps pursued a relationship with one or two of the young women he taught. Now, however, that he is older and weightier, and now that, with each passing year, the girls grow younger and younger, these relationships seem less attainable.
As we drove back, crossing the hill,
The house still
Hidden in the trees, I always thought—
A fool’s fear—that it might have caught
Fire, someone could have broken in.
The poem opens with the narrator expressing his/her irrational fear that, upon returning to their locked house after a trip away, they will find it burned to the ground or burgled. This opening stanza captures the irrational fears all humans have regarding the comfortable things we have in life, such as our houses and our cars. This quotation therefore is used to sympathize with the reader, and share that everyone—including the narrator of this poem—has irrational fears and considerations, such as being concerned that you will return from a trip to find your house burned or missing.
Though trees turn bare and girls turn wives,
We shall afford our costly seasons;
There is a gentleness survives
That will outspeak and has its reasons.
There is a loveliness exists,
Preserves us, not for specialists.
The concluding stanza of his poem summarizes the sentiment of the entire work. Here, the narrator comments on the changing of seasons as a metaphor for the aging process, wherein boys turn to men and women into wives. The narrator suggests that each season is costly, for as each year passes, we both lose and gain many things. Despite of this change, he insists, there is a loveliness in this process, for it preserves a legacy. In short, in this stanza, the narrator concludes that the losses of each season do not compare to the gentleness and undeniability of change.
The ‘possum under the owl’s claw,
The wet fawn huddled in the grass,
The solider, hurt, in his lost trench
Clench the eyelid, clutch the breath
Till scavengers, till coup de grace,
Death and the lurking terror pass.
In this somber poem, the narrator talks about the shared act (and potential dangers) of sleep, which is a necessary component of life for all creatures. The narrator talks about possums and wet fawns and suggests that both submit themselves to danger when they sleep, for they are exposed and unguarded, which makes sleep a very dangerous time. Snodgrass then transitions from seemingly innocent forest animals to a wounded solider, deep in the trenches. The narrator suggests that sleep is both a blessing and a danger for this solider, as death can come in an instant. Though sleep is supposed to be a time of peace and rest, for many, it can be a time of terror, for during sleep, we are our most vulnerable and death can come suddenly and without pause. Therefore, this quotation draws a parallel between the way all creatures make themselves vulnerable during times of rest.
