Weeds
Weeds - meaning Summary
Weeds as Persistent Life
The poem contrasts a village’s rule that weeds must be destroyed with the persistent, living advance of the weeds. A recurring figure, Sleepy Henry Hackerman, hoes from early planting through standing corn, embodying routine labor and the attempt to enforce order. The weeds insist on life’s continuation, arriving in "irrepressible regiments," so the poem presents a plain tension between imposed law and natural resilience.
Read Complete AnalysesFROM the time of the early radishes To the time of the standing corn Sleepy Henry Hackerman hoes. There are laws in the village against weeds. The law says a weed is wrong and shall be killed. The weeds say life is a white and lovely thing And the weeds come on and on in irrepressible regiments. Sleepy Henry Hackerman hoes; and the village law uttering a ban on weeds is unchangeable law.
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