Night Clouds
The first poem is entitled ‘’Night Clouds’’ and while it is a short poem, it offers a beautiful description of the night sky and the clouds on it. The clouds are called ‘’white mares’’ that belong to the moon. The mares rush on the sky, eager to reach their destination. This destination, we later find, are the doors of Heaven through which they try to pass. Despite being white, and thus pure, the mares do not get past the green gates and Heaven moves further and further away. This may suggest that the white mares may be in fact souls that try to get to Heaven but can’t because of one reason of another.
The mares in this poem also have an enemy, a red tiger that tries to kill them so the mares must strain and keep on running to avoid being caught by the lion. The term lion is sometimes used in the Holy Scriptures with connection to the Devil so this may also suggest that the souls are followed evil forces that try to stop them from finding eternal salvation.
November
In the poem ‘’November’’, the narrator adopts a slighter darker tone while describing an autumn day. The day as described by the narrator is an extremely gloomy one to the point where the weather influences even the narrator and makes her feel as if she is unable to write because of the weather. The sky and the starts are affected as well by the dried eaves to the point where they are covered by the dry leaves. The author mentions how even the cat is unwilling to sit by her, preferring to rather stay by the window and look outside at the rain.
The dead leaves and vegetation could be used here as symbol for the author’s bad mood that influences eventually even her willingness and her desire to write. The stars that are covered by the leaves could stand for the author’s inspiration that is hidden by her mood.
Obligation
The third poem is entitled ‘’Obligation’’ and in it the narrator addresses an unknown person and reveals her desire to make her gifts even though she feels as if those gifts are not enough. The title of the poem is a little bit puzzling because it transmits the idea that the narrator may see the act of giving as being a burden. Instead of that, the title may suggest that the narrator feels a moral obligation to shower to unnamed person with gifts for reason known only to her.
Patterns
The next poem is entitled ‘’Patterns’’ and it begins with the narrator walking in a garden. From the way she talks, it seems as if she if from another time, a different century when women wore powdered hair and had jeweled fans. In the first stanza the narrator refers to herself as being a rare pattern thus transmitting the idea that she is different from the rest of the people around her.
The narrator walks in the beautiful garden but she feels constricted by the world around her so she sits under a tree and cries when a blossom falls from it. The narrator continues to talk about her grown and how she would like to see it on a heap on the grown, not on her, constricting her every move.
The narrator imagines herself naked and running through the gardens while her lover follows her until he catches her and takes her in his arms. This however will not happen as in the next stanza is revealed that the narrator revealed a letter through which she was informed that her lover was killed in action and thus will never return home.
After revealing this, the narrator tells the reader how the only thing keeping her standing straight is her stiff dress. The narrator and her lover were supposed to get married in the very same garden the narrator was taking a walk. In that moment, the narrator promises to walk in the garden every winter and summer as a way of commemorating her dead lover and to keep his memory alive.
A Lady
In the poem entitled ‘’A Lady’’, the narrator addresses a person she only calls as being ‘’you’’. The author talks about the beauty of the unknown person and she also transmits the idea that the narrator is impressed both by the beauty of the unknown person and by her grace. The narrator feels almost like a slave when she is in front of the unknown person and the narrator is so enchanted that she would do anything just to see the unnamed woman happy and pleased.
