The Little Lives of Earth and Form
The Little Lives of Earth and Form - meaning Summary
Kinship with the Landscape
The poem describes a felt kinship between humans and simpler earth-bound lives. The speaker notes common needs—food, warmth, shelter—and admits a lingering identification with rocks, clay and grass. That identification is presented as ambiguous and possibly illusory, yet persistent: the landscape and its materials become a way of seeing a beloved or human presence. The tone is reflective, registering both longing for homeliness and doubt about the validity of the connection.
Read Complete AnalysesThe little lives of earth and form, Of finding food, and keeping warm, Are not like ours, and yet A kinship lingers nonetheless: We hanker for the homeliness Of den, and hole, and set. And this identity we feel - Perhaps not right, perhaps not real - Will link us constantly; I see the rock, the clay, the chalk, The flattened grass, the swaying stalk, And it is you I see.
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