Alcove
Alcove - meaning Summary
Ambivalent Renewal and Fragile Intimacy
The poem contemplates spring as a recurrent, almost mindless return that resists clear purpose. The speaker notes both the breathy insubstantiality of seasonal change and the way repeated cycles can coagulate into years. Human kindness appears provisional: others spend the night in an alcove, their breathing audible, yet terrible incidents occur daily. The poem balances moments of domestic intimacy with an acknowledgment that disruption is routine and resilience is pragmatic.
Read Complete AnalysesIs it possible that spring could be once more approaching? We forget each time what a mindless business it is, porous like sleep, adrift on the horizon, refusing to take sides, "mugwump of the final hour," lest an agenda—horrors!—be imputed to it, and the whole point of its being spring collapse like a hole dug in sand. It's breathy, though, you have to say that for it. And should further seasons coagulate into years, like spilled, dried paint, why, who's to say we weren't provident? We indeed looked out for others as though they mattered, and they, catching the spirit, came home with us, spent the night in an alcove from which their breathing could be heard clearly. But it's not over yet. Terrible incidents happen daily. That's how we get around obstacles.
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