“The horizons ring me like faggots,”

The speaker describes feeling surrounded by the horizons, which encircle them like bundles of sticks. This imagery creates a sense of being enclosed or trapped within the landscape.

“Tilted and disparate, and always unstable.”

The horizons are depicted as tilted and disjointed, suggesting an imbalance or lack of cohesion. This instability contributes to the speaker’s feeling of disorientation or unease.

“Touched by a match, they might warm me,”

The speaker imagines that if the horizons were ignited like a match, they might provide warmth or comfort. This metaphor suggests a desire for solace or relief from the surrounding desolation.

“And their fine lines singe The air to orange Before the distances they pin evaporate,”

The fine lines of the horizons are compared to flames that singe the air, turning it orange. This vivid imagery evokes the sensation of heat and burning, enhancing the atmosphere of the poem.

“Weighting the pale sky with a soldier color.”

The horizon’s effect on the sky is described as adding weight or heaviness, imparting a solemn or serious quality often associated with soldiers or military imagery.

“But they only dissolve and dissolve Like a series of promises, as I step forward.”

Despite the initial impression of warmth and stability, the horizons eventually dissolve and disappear, much like broken promises. This metaphor underscores the transient and unreliable nature of comfort or reassurance.

“There is no life higher than the grasstops Or the hearts of sheep, and the wind”

The speaker reflects on the absence of life beyond the grasstops or the hearts of sheep, emphasizing the desolation and emptiness of the landscape. The wind is introduced as a powerful force in this barren environment.4

“Pours by like destiny, bending Everything in one direction.”

The wind is personified as pouring by like destiny, exerting its influence on everything in its path. This imagery conveys a sense of inevitability or fate, suggesting that the forces of nature cannot be resisted.

“I can feel it trying To funnel my heat away.”

The speaker senses the wind attempting to draw away their warmth or vitality. This personification of the wind as actively trying to diminish the speaker’s energy adds to the atmosphere of struggle and conflict.

“If I pay the roots of the heather Too close attention, they will invite me To whiten my bones among them.”

The speaker warns against focusing too intently on the roots of the heather, as doing so may lead to their own demise. This imagery suggests a sense of danger or mortality lurking beneath the surface of the natural world.

“The sheep know where they are, Browsing in their dirty wool-clouds,”

The sheep are depicted as familiar with their surroundings, browsing in their woolly coats. This imagery contrasts with the speaker’s own sense of disorientation and uncertainty.

“Gray as the weather.”

The sheep’s wool is described as gray, blending in with the dreary weather. This color imagery reinforces the bleakness of the landscape.

“The black slots of their pupils take me in.”

The speaker feels as though they are being observed by the sheep, whose dark pupils seem to absorb their presence. This imagery adds to the sense of being watched or scrutinized.

“It is like being mailed into space, A thin, silly message.”

The speaker compares their experience to being sent into space as a meaningless message. This metaphor underscores the speaker’s feeling of insignificance or absurdity in the vastness of the natural world.

“They stand about in grandmotherly disguise, All wig curls and yellow teeth And hard, marbly baas.”

The sheep are anthropomorphized, depicted as standing around in a comical disguise reminiscent of grandmothers. This whimsical imagery adds a surreal or absurd element to the poem.

“I come to wheel ruts, and water Limpid as the solitudes That flee through my fingers.”

The speaker encounters wheel ruts and clear water, symbolizing the passage of time and the transience of life. The water is described as limpid, reflecting the solitude and emptiness experienced by the speaker.

“Hollow doorsteps go from grass to grass; Lintel and sill have unhinged themselves.”

The speaker observes hollow doorsteps leading from one patch of grass to another, suggesting a sense of abandonment or decay. The lintel and sill of the doorways have become unhinged, further emphasizing the theme of disintegration and ruin.

“Of people and the air only Remembers a few odd syllables.”

The memory of humanity is depicted as fading, with only a few disjointed syllables remaining. This imagery suggests a sense of loss or forgetfulness.

“It rehearses them moaningly: Black stone, black stone.”

These remaining syllables are repeated mournfully, echoing the theme of loss and decay. The repetition emphasizes the sense of desolation and hopelessness.

“The sky leans on me, me, the one upright Among all horizontals.”

The speaker feels the weight of the sky pressing down on them, emphasizing their sense of isolation or burden. They describe themselves as the only upright figure in a landscape dominated by horizontals, highlighting their feeling of being out of place.

“The grass is beating its head distractedly.”

The grass is personified as beating its head distractedly, suggesting a sense of agitation or restlessness. This imagery reflects the speaker’s own inner turmoil or unease.

“It is too delicate For a life in such company;”

The speaker reflects on the fragility of the grass, suggesting that it is ill-suited for existence in such a harsh or unforgiving environment. This observation underscores the vulnerability of all living things.

“Darkness terrifies it.”

The darkness is described as terrifying the grass, adding to the atmosphere of fear or apprehension. This fear of the dark may symbolize the speaker’s own anxieties or fears.

“Now, in valleys narrow And black as purses, the house lights Gleam like small change.”

The speaker observes house lights shining in narrow valleys, likening them to small change gleaming in the darkness. This imagery suggests a sense of comfort or familiarity amidst the surrounding desolation.