The hills themselves seem hurt and angry. The young girl has looked straight at the naked sun and ignored the stones, trees, and mountains around her — so the landscape has “scored” her, as if marking her for leaving. The speaker doesn’t simply scold her, though. There is a knowing sadness in the prediction that a dark time will come, when only remembered sunlight reaches the hills. In that future, she may finally understand what the land gave her and what she gave it. The last image deepens the mood: an old woman, bent and tapping with a stick, returns to the same stones to find the girl she used to be. It is a quietly haunting poem about home, memory, and the way a place can hold your younger self long after you’ve gone.
To a Young Girl Leaving the Hill Country — Summary
The hills are wroth; the stones have scored you bitterly Because you looked upon the naked sun Oblivious of them, because you did not see The trees you touched or mountains that you walked upon.
But there will come a day of darkness in the land, A day wherein remembered sun alone comes through To mark the hills; then perhaps you’ll understand Just how it was you drew from them and they from you.
For there will be a bent old woman in that day Who, feeling something of this country in her bones, Will leave her house tapping with a stick, who will (they say) Come back to seek the girl she was in these familiar stones.