Resumo de A Poetry - introduced and annotated by george

A poetry continues

I think I rains
I think it rains
That tongues may looses from the parch
Uncleave roof ? tops of the mouth, hang
Heavy with knowledge.
I saw it raise
The sudden cloud, from ashes, settling
They joined in a ring of grey; within
The circling spirit
O it must rain
These closures on the mind binding us
In strange despair teaching
Purity of sadness.
And how it beats
Skeined transparencies on wings
Of our desires, searing dark longings
I cruel baptisms.
Rain ? reeds practised in
The grace of yielding; yet unbending
From afar, this your conjugation with earth
Bares crouching rocks.

Commentary
What makes this poem difficult is that the poet explores a state of mind by using rain as a symbolic image. We must be able to see the quick parallels and associations which is drawn. Rain is used in this poem as a bringer of relief and as an agent of good. The symbolic image of the rain narrates the burdensome thoughts that are stifling and causing so much despair and sadness. But circumstances dictate that there must be peace.
Notes

Line 2 ? 3 This is condensed metaphorical writing and a number of ideas are involved. First the use of parch (dry) means that the rain will bring relief and will invigorate nature, just as we uses saliva in the mouth to be able to speak uncleave means to fasten what the poem is saying here is that the rain releases the tongue which indeed has a great deal to divulge.
Line 8 The stirring of ashes caused by the rain is linked to the thoughts that trouble the mind of the poet. Note the use of poet grey, a colour which conventionally denotes cheerlessness. The poet must remain bottled up.
Line 10 Refers to the restrictions, which make it difficult for him to speak out and therefore causing sadness and despair
Line 12 The very essence of sadness
Line 14-15 The fourth stanza of this poem is the most difficult because of the use, which it makes of ambiguity and paradox. Skeined means tangled and confused and transparencies are things that can be seen through clearly.
Line 15-16 Searing dark longings
This is a paradoxical expression, as the rain would be expected to cool and not sear (written or scorch) anything. But it is dark longings that are disposed off, and this effect of the rain is expelling evil thoughts is seen as cruel baptisms. The baptismal image agrees with the purity of sadness of the previous stanza. It is that pure state that is achieved by the searing away of dark longings.
Line 17-18 When the atmosphere is saturated and pressure is low, rain inevitably falls. The rain yields. There is a sexual image here with the rain standing for male principle and the female principle. It is unbending because it falls in straight shafts.
Line 19-20 The sexual image is clearly hinted and my earth refers to both the physical earth and him. The washing of the rocks symbolizes the exposure of my thoughts under the influence of the rain.

New Year?s Eve Midnight

Now the bells are tolling
A Year is dead
And my heart is slowly beating
The Nunc Dimittis
To all my hopes and mute
Yearnings of a year
And ghosts hover round
Dream beyond dream.
Dream beyond dream
Mingling with the dying
Bell ? Sounds fading
Into Memories
Like rain drops
Falling into a river
And now the bells are chiming
A year is born
And my heart ? bell is ringing
In a dawn
But it?s shrouded things I see
Dimly stride
On heart ? canopied paths
To a riverside.

Commentary
Like most people, the poet seizes the opportunity provided by that critical movement of the celebration when one year is declared ended and new one heralded to reflect upon his failures in the past year and express his anxious expectation of another year in which he hopes to make up for all the unaccomplished dreams of the previous year. But there are indications that this New Year is not going to be as happy as the poet hopes. Because "it?s shrouded things I see". The poet here then implicitly comments on the eternal cyycle of hope and despair, which make up the rhythm of life.

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