The speaker compares his own heart to a meadow where clouds pass over, making light and shadow shift across grass and clover. His inner life feels changeable, brightened and darkened by moods that never stay. By contrast, the person he loves has a heart like an orchard kept always in sunlight. Its trees are steady and warm, and beneath them falls the shadow of ripening fruit. That fruit, he says, ripens for him. The poem creates a tender, slightly wistful mood. There is admiration in it, even a little awe, because the speaker sees himself as restless and drifting while the other person seems constant, generous, and calm. The orchard offers something the meadow cannot: lasting light and a promise of sweetness.
Meadow and Orchard — Summary
My heart is like a meadow, Where clouds go over, Dappling the mingled grass and clover With mingled sun and shadow, With light that will not stay And shade that sails away.
Your heart is like an orchard, That has the sun for ever in its leaves, Where, on the grass beneath the trees, There falls the shadow of the fruit That ripen there for me.