Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Jack Hirschman’s "Three" is a brief yet evocative meditation on time, change, and intimacy, structured around the natural rhythm of the seasons. The poem moves fluidly between external transformation—the shifting of the tree outside the window—and the internal fluctuations of a relationship, capturing how both follow cycles of renewal, growth, and decay. The title, Three, suggests multiple interpretations: the three seasons implicitly referenced (winter, spring, and an implied later season, perhaps summer or autumn), the interplay of three elements (nature, time, and love), or even the dynamic between self, lover, and time itself.

The opening image—"The tree outside the window, when I look again it's spring,"—establishes the poem’s temporal framework. The speaker is caught in the realization that time has passed unnoticed, as if only just now registering the changing world. The tree serves as an external marker of this transition, and its sudden renewal parallels the emotional cycles within the room, within the relationship. The phrase "this room of our in-fighting" follows abruptly, contrasting the external harmony of nature with the internal discord of human relationships. While the tree flourishes, the lovers remain locked in struggle, suggesting that personal connections are not always as effortlessly regenerative as the natural world.

The next lines introduce meli, the Greek word for honey, connecting language, memory, and sensory experience. The speaker associates the lover’s hair with honey, a term of sweetness and sensuality, but immediately pivots—"it was bourbon in winter." This shift suggests a transformation of perception: from the golden warmth of honey to the sharper, intoxicating burn of bourbon. Winter, often symbolic of hardship or emotional distance, aligns with this stronger, more volatile imagery. This line encapsulates how love, like the seasons, morphs—what once seemed soft and sweet can take on a more intense, even dangerous, quality over time.

Hirschman then moves into an exploration of change itself—"Changes, the laughing, slipping out of things,"—a line that suggests both joy and loss. The phrase slipping out of things carries a dual meaning: the natural shedding of past selves and moments, but also the possibility of emotional distancing, of slipping away from one another. However, the next phrase—"and the way we spring in each / other then, lush and green"—revives the vitality of love, linking it explicitly to springtime renewal. This suggests that despite prior tensions, there is a period of mutual rediscovery, a time when passion returns with the force of nature’s regrowth. The use of spring as both a noun and verb adds to the dynamism, emphasizing movement, energy, and resurgence.

The final lines—"later still with my finger on / the form of which the seasons are expressions like: / Are you done? / I'm aching. / Come here."—close the poem in a compressed, fragmented dialogue. The phrase "later still with my finger on" evokes physical intimacy, the speaker tracing something tangible—perhaps the lover’s body, perhaps a symbolic representation of time’s passage. The form of which the seasons are expressions suggests that change, whether in nature or in relationships, is merely an outward manifestation of a deeper, cyclical essence. The conversation—"Are you done? / I'm aching. / Come here."—captures the unresolved tension of desire and exhaustion, love and its lingering pains. There is a push and pull, a negotiation of presence and distance, a longing that persists even as seasons shift.

"Three" distills the essence of a relationship into a few vivid moments, balancing tenderness and conflict, passion and distance. Hirschman’s structure mirrors the natural cycles he invokes—moving through discord, renewal, and inevitable ache. The poem’s brevity enhances its impact, leaving the reader with the lingering sense that love, like the seasons, is something that continually transforms yet always returns in some form.

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