The Armful
The Armful - meaning Summary
Balancing Burdens and Choices
The poem presents a speaker struggling to carry too many literal and figurative parcels. Each time he stoops to pick something up he loses hold of something else, and the accumulating, slipping load becomes hard to manage. He wants to keep everything — possessions, responsibilities, or commitments — held by hand, mind, and heart, but ultimately must set the armful down in order to restack and rebalance. The final act of dropping and reorganizing suggests a pragmatic acceptance that some things must be let go temporarily to preserve the whole.
Read Complete AnalysesFor every parcel I stoop down to seize I lose some other off my arms and knees, And the whole pile is slipping, bottles, buns — Extremes too hard to comprehend at once, Yet nothing I should care to leave behind. With all I have to hold with hand and mind And heart, if need be, I will do my best To keep their building balanced at my breast. I crouch down to prevent them as they fall; Then sit down in the middle of them all. I had to drop the armful in the road And try to stack them in a better load.
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