The speaker, now older, wonders whether children still go to Siever’s for cider after school in late September and gather hazelnuts on Hatfield’s farm when the frosts begin. He remembers being one of them—laughing, running over the hills in the cool low sun, stopping to club walnuts from a bare tree against a flaming western sky. Now, those autumn details come back as “dreams of life,” but they also turn into questions. The smell of smoke, dropping acorns, and echoes in the valleys hover over him, asking where the laughing companions have gone. Some are still with him, but others lie in the old orchards and the woods above the quiet water. The mood is wistful and gently elegiac: autumn is beautiful and sensory, yet it makes the speaker feel how much time and how many friends have slipped away.
Hare Drummer — Summary
Do the boys and girls still go to Siever’s For cider, after school, in late September? Or gather hazel nuts among the thickets On Aaron Hatfield’s farm when the frosts begin? For many times with the laughing girls and boys Played I along the road and over the hills When the sun was low and the air was cool, Stopping to club the walnut tree Standing leafless against a flaming west. Now, the smell of the autumn smoke, And the dropping acorns, And the echoes about the vales Bring dreams of life. They hover over me. They question me: Where are those laughing comrades? How many are with me, how many In the old orchards along the way to Siever’s, And in the woods that overlook The quiet water?