Whose Cheek Is This?

Whose Cheek Is This? - meaning Summary

Rescue Shaded by Doubt

The speaker discovers a rosy cheek or face in the woods and carries it away, recalling a robin tradition of covering such things with leaves. The poem foregrounds uncertainty: the speaker cannot tell whether the soft object is a living cheek or a pale remnant. It compresses tenderness, protective rescue, and doubt about life versus death into a brief, haunting encounter with a found body or token of loss.