Twice Shy
Twice Shy - meaning Summary
Courtship Held in Suspense
On an evening walk, two people who like each other but are too shy to say so circle around their feelings. The poem presents their conversation as cautious, formal, and full of tension, with attraction and restraint balanced against each other. It reflects the awkwardness of young courtship and the way unspoken desire can make even a simple walk feel charged and uncertain.
Read Complete AnalysesHer scarf a la Bardot, In suede flats for the walk, She came with me one evening For air and friendly talk. We crossed the quiet river, Took the embankment walk. Traffic holding its breath, Sky a tense diaphragm: Dusk hung like a backcloth That shook where a swan swam, Tremulous as a hawk Hanging deadly, calm. A vacuum of need Collapsed each hunting heart But tremulously we held As hawk and prey apart, Preserved classic decorum, Deployed our talk with art. Our Juvenilia Had taught us both to wait, Not to publish feeling And regret it all too late - Mushroom loves already Had puffed and burst in hate. So, chary and excited, As a thrush linked on a hawk, We thrilled to the March twilight With nervous childish talk: Still waters running deep Along the embankment walk.
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