Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Robert Pinsky’s "The Time of Year, The Time of Day" is a reflective and evocative meditation on time, memory, and the human impulse to find comfort and meaning in familiar rituals and customs. Through the lens of seasonal change and the passage of day into night, Pinsky explores the ways in which these temporal markers influence our emotions, our relationships, and our sense of purpose.

The poem begins with a declaration of need: "One way I need you, the way I come to need / Our custom of speech, or need this other custom / Of speech in lines." Here, Pinsky acknowledges the comfort that comes from shared habits and the use of language, both in everyday conversation and in poetry. This need is not just for communication, but for a structure that helps "alleviate / The weather, the time of year, the time of day." The word "alleviate" suggests that these temporal elements carry a weight or burden that must be lightened or managed, and that the rituals of speech and writing serve as tools for coping with the existential challenges they bring.

Pinsky quickly moves into a personal reflection, using the transition from winter to spring as a backdrop: "the way the dusk in late / Winter or early spring recalls adolescence." This shift in seasons evokes memories of youth, particularly the "comical unease / And vague depression" associated with that time. The "long walk home / From the grim school through washed-out extra daylight" paints a picture of a young person navigating the confusing and often uncomfortable space between day and night, between the structured environment of school and the uncertain freedom of home. The "yellow light that waited in kitchen windows" serves as a symbol of warmth, safety, and the familiar comforts of home, which contrast sharply with the "washed-out" world outside.

The poem then reflects on the emotional coldness that can persist even in seemingly warm times: "But how cold in retrospect the afternoon / And evening even in July could seem." This line captures the way memory can distort or color past experiences, imbuing even the warmth of summer with a sense of chill and foreboding. The "cold heralding" that signals the approach of these very hours emphasizes the cyclical nature of time and the inevitable return of certain feelings and experiences.

Pinsky touches on the idea that time carries a "burden of a promise but a promise / Limited," suggesting that while time offers potential and opportunity, it also imposes limits and constraints. This duality sends people "huddling to their bodies / Or kitchens as colonizers of the day / And of the year." The image of people retreating to their bodies or kitchens evokes a sense of seeking refuge, of finding solace in the tangible and the familiar as a way of navigating the uncertainties of time and change.

The poem concludes with a powerful image of "rough settlers" who "throughout / The stunning winter couple in a fury / To fill the brown width of their tillable plains." This metaphor likens the human response to time's passage to that of pioneers or settlers who, faced with the harshness of winter, engage in acts of creation and cultivation. The "brown width of their tillable plains" represents both the physical and emotional landscapes that people seek to populate and make fertile, even in the face of adversity.

In "The Time of Year, The Time of Day," Robert Pinsky masterfully weaves together themes of memory, time, and the human need for connection and ritual. The poem reflects on the ways in which the changing seasons and the daily cycle of light and dark shape our emotions and behaviors, compelling us to seek comfort in the familiar and to find meaning in the rhythms of speech, relationships, and the small, everyday rituals that define our lives. Through his evocative language and rich imagery, Pinsky captures the complexity of human experience as it intersects with the natural world and the inexorable passage of time.

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