End of Summer Lyrics
A perturbation of the light
Admonished me the unloved year
Would turn on its hinge that night.
I stood in the disenchanted field
Amid the stubble and the stones,
Amazed, while a small worm lisped to me
The song of my marrow-bones.
Blue poured into summer blue,
A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,
The roof of the silo blazed, and I knew
That part of my life was over.
Already the iron door of the north
Clangs open: birds, leaves, snows
Order their populations forth,
And a cruel wind blows.
About
Stanley Kunitz wrote “End Of Summer” in 1953
It is easy to say this poem is merely about the changing seasons and how nature has an effect on an individual as it changes. However, one may argue that this poem is more than nature and the changing of a season, but a change in a persons life. Whether this change is the growth of a child to an adult that seems unwanted, or just the change of happiness to oncoming cruel (and I knew that part of my life was over), unsettling times (and a cruel wind blows), is up to the reader. Kunitz uses strong language and imagery in an attempt to put the reader in the “Disenchanted field amid the stubble and the stone”, which gives the poem a personality. This personality is different for every reader, depending on how the reader interprets it.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning