Question

Interpretation of the poem ,A Little Song by Amy Lowell

poem
When you, my Dear, are away, away,
How wearily goes the creeping day.
A year drags after morning, and night
Starts another year of candle light.
O Pausing Sun and Lingering Moon!
Grant me, I beg of you, this boon.

Whirl round the earth as never sun
Has his diurnal journey run.
And, Moon, slip past the ladders of air
In a single flash, while your streaming hair
Catches the stars and pulls them down
To shine on some slumbering Chinese town.
O Kindly Sun! Understanding Moon!
Bring evening to crowd the footsteps of noon.

But when that long awaited day
Hangs ripe in the heavens, your voyaging stay.
Be morning, O Sun! with the lark in song,
Be afternoon for ages long.
And, Moon, let you and your lesser lights
Watch over a century of nights.

Answer 1

"A Little Song" by Amy Lowell is a poem about longing for the return of a loved one who is away, and the desire for time to pass quickly until their return.

The speaker expresses how slowly time seems to pass when their loved one is away. The day seems to drag on, and the night only serves to remind them of how much time has passed without their loved one. The speaker then makes a plea to the sun and the moon to speed up the passage of time, urging them to travel around the earth more quickly than they ever have before.

The speaker imagines the moon slipping past the ladders of air and capturing stars in its streaming hair, pulling them down to shine on a sleeping Chinese town. The sun and the moon are personified as kind and understanding, and the speaker implores them to bring evening quickly to crowd out the long, dragging afternoon.

Finally, the speaker begs the sun and the moon to slow down time once their loved one returns. The long-awaited day should be like morning, full of promise and the song of the lark. The afternoon should stretch on for ages, and the moon should watch over a century of nights. The speaker wants to savor every moment with their loved one and make up for the time that was lost while they were away.

Overall, "A Little Song" is a poem about the pain of separation and the desire to make up for lost time with a loved one. The speaker's plea to the sun and the moon adds a magical, otherworldly quality to the poem, emphasizing the power of the natural world to influence human emotions.