Song Meaning

The poem opens with a domestic scene, the narrator by a fire, observing the familiar colors of fallen leaves. These colors, repeating and turning, are likened to leaves caught in the wind, a gentle, cyclical image. This quiet observation is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of the "color of the heavy hemlocks," a more imposing presence that triggers a memory of the "cry of the peacocks." The central tension arises from this intrusion. The vibrant, almost aggressive colors of the hemlocks and the piercing cry of the peacocks disrupt the passive observation of the firelight. The narrator questions the source of the peacock's cry: is it a protest against the natural world – the twilight, the leaves, the hemlocks – or against the internal, fiery turning that mirrors these external elements? This ambiguity suggests a deep unease, a fear that the external world's intensity is somehow connected to an internal turmoil. The most striking craft element is the pervasive repetition of "turning in the wind." This phrase, initially applied to leaves, is then extended to the peacocks' tails, the flames in the fire, and even the "planets gathered" and the "night came." This creates a powerful sense of inescapable motion and transformation. The "striding" of the hemlocks and the night, paralleled with the turning, injects a sense of impending, perhaps overwhelming, force that culminates in the narrator's stated fear. This piece hits hard because it masterfully links the mundane with the sublime and the internal with the external. The shift from the quiet fire to the striding hemlocks and the remembered peacock cry creates a palpable sense of dread. The repeated "turning" suggests a loss of control, a feeling that everything, from nature to the cosmos, is caught in a powerful, potentially frightening, flux that the narrator can only observe with growing fear.