Yields doubled. I grew fond of company
that knew when to shut up. Then one night,
disturbed from dreams of my dear late wife,
I hunted down her torn voice to his pale form.
The narrator acknowledges the reliability of the hireling on the farm and also on a personal level. The enjambment creates tension proceeding into the second stanza which creates a link between the hireling and the dead wife. The speaker alludes to a relationship with the hireling though addresses it vaguely due to its transgressive nature. Though he is an unreliable narrator this connection shows he shares romantic feelings with the employee akin to his late wife. The poem depicts a traditional society therefore the tension is because the narrator is perhaps reconciling his unresolved feelings with the social conventions.
I knew him a warlock, a cow with leather horns.
To go into the hare gets you muckle sorrow,
The narrator incorporates folklore and magical myths to address the mysterious circumstances of his situation. The Nordic witchcraft legends imply that witches and warlocks turn into hares particularly in their death. The narrator persists with the superstitious explanation way after killing his hireling perhaps to justify his actions. He introduces the superstitious element in the poem to continue conveying his version of events through a cryptic veil.
and my days here. Bless me Father for I have sinned.
It has been an hour since my last confession.
The last stanza reveals that the narrator is guilty of his action and seeks to absolve himself of his transgressions. His confession shows a man driven by passion and killing his hireling possibly due to the sexual nature of their relationship. The last line divulges that his guilt goes deeper than he cares to admit as he repents too frequently. The killing was a crime of passion that took place in the heat of the moment without any mystical validation whatsoever.
