Assurance
The theme of assurance is presented in the poem 'A Locked House.' The house itself remains 'locked tight,' emphasized by the sibilance in the cliche 'safe and sound.' The familiarity of such a cliche gives this phrase even more assurance. The theme of assurance seems to continue, when the speaker reflects on the discussion they had with their partner, such as their agreement 'we two are stronger than we were apart,' and the affirmation that 'everything we own can burn; we know what counts.'
However, the assurance of their relationship breaks down, which was foreshadowed earlier in the poem through the speaker's reflection 'Maybe I should have thought: all such things rot, fall -' At the end, 'the house still stands,' and it is the assurance of this house that prevails throughout the poem, whilst the assurances in their relationship seem to fall away.
Death/Loss of a loved one
In the poem Sitting Outside, Snodgrass deals with the theme of death by revealing his aversion to his family's 'delusions,' and 'talk of plans for some boat tour or a trip to the Bahamas once' his father had gotten better. The poem does not explicitly say that Snodgrass' father dies, but it is implied, both through his narrative of annoyance towards his family's denial of his father's apparently (in his mind) imminent death and through the mention of time. The determiner 'those' in the time phrase, 'in those last few weeks,' suggests that these weeks were some of the last his father had before passing away.
The theme of death continues through the imagery of nature, as Snodgrass reflects conversationally, 'of course the trees, too, may not last,' and his list of examples of decay in the natural world of the trees, for example, when 'the riddles bark separates, then gets shed.' The adjective 'riddled' is perhaps another reference to his father's illness, as riddled is normally associated with disease and its grip on the body.
Finally, Snodgrass reflects on the his childish view on death, stating 'I must have been filled with a child dread you could catch somebody's dying if you got too close.' This comes after his own personal remark 'I have a son, myself, with things to be looked after.' Perhaps as he sits on the same garden furniture that his father sat on, he is contemplating his own death in the future and the impact of this on his son. He finishes the poem with the monosyllabic, simple sentence 'and you cant be too sure,' which again places himself in the place of his father and perhaps suggests he is contemplating his fate?
