Waiting
Waiting - meaning Summary
Solitude Versus Domestic Obligation
The poem presents a speaker who finds joy and aesthetic pleasure alone in a vividly described natural scene, only to have that calm shattered by the sudden arrival of his children. Their noisy presence produces guilt, frustration, and a sense of personal loss. He questions whether parental devotion must displace solitary appreciation and wonders, with uneasy resignation, what he might say when such interruptions inevitably recur.
Read Complete AnalysesWhen I am alone I am happy. The air is cool. The sky is flecked and splashed and wound with color. The crimson phalloi of the sassafras leaves hang crowded before me in shoals on the heavy branches. When I reach my doorstep I am greeted by the happy shrieks of my children and my heart sinks. I am crushed. Are not my children as dear to me as falling leaves or must one become stupid to grow older? It seems much as if Sorrow had tripped up my heels. Let us see, let us see! What did I plan to say to her when it should happen to me as it has happened now?
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