A New York shop window stocked with bananas, mangoes, cocoa pods, and other tropical fruit stops the speaker cold. These familiar foods immediately carry him back to his homeland, where fruit trees grew beside low-singing streams, mornings arrived dewy and fresh, and blue skies seemed to rest in blessing over quiet, nun-like hills. The contrast between that remembered lushness and his present city life is sharp and painful. Overcome, he finds his eyes growing dim; a wave of longing sweeps through his body, and, hungry for the old familiar ways, he turns aside and weeps. The mood is tender, sorrowful, and thick with homesickness. An ordinary shop window suddenly reopens deep feelings of loss, memory, and belonging for someone living far from home.
The Tropics in New York — Summary
Bananas ripe and green, and ginger-root, Cocoa in pods and alligator pears, And tangerines and mangoes and grape fruit, Fit for the highest prize at parish fairs, Set in the window, bringing memories Of fruit-trees laden by low-singing rills, And dewy dawns, and mystical blue skies In benediction over nun-like hills. My eyes grew dim, and I could no more gaze; A wave of longing through my body swept, And, hungry for the old, familiar ways, I turned aside and bowed my head and wept.