At first, the speaker feels mocked by the steely stars and brass-colored moon, which will keep shining long after she is blind, deaf, and buried. She admits to envious dark rage at their immortality, asking bitterly why human beings alone are slaves to death. The mood is cold, exposed, and despairing. Then she turns to the hemlock tree for shelter. Beneath its fragrant boughs there is no anger, doubt, or envy. The night wind through the tree sounds like veiled music, robins stir drowsily, and even she is housed in its quietness. The tree seems to answer: if she can become peaceful, beauty will feed and comfort her, making one day rich as the eternity she has lost. The poem moves from anguish at mortality toward a fragile, nature-given consolation.
The Wind in the Hemlock — Summary
Steely stars and moon of brass, How mockingly you watch me pass! You know as well as I how soon I shall be blind to stars and moon, Deaf to the wind in the hemlock tree, Dumb when the brown earth weighs on me.
With envious dark rage I bear, Stars, your cold complacent stare; Heart-broken in my hate look up, Moon, at your clear immortal cup, Changing to gold from dusky red-- Age after age when I am dead To be filled up with light, and then Emptied, to be refilled again.
What has man done that only he Is slave to death--so brutally Beaten back into the earth Impatient for him since his birth?
Oh let me shut my eyes, close out The sight of stars and earth and be Sheltered a minute by this tree. Hemlock, through your fragrant boughs There moves no anger and no doubt, No envy of immortal things. The night-wind murmurs of the sea With veiled music ceaselessly, That to my shaken spirit sings. From their frail nest the robins rouse, In your pungent darkness stirred, Twittering a low drowsy word-- And me you shelter, even me. In your quietness you house The wind, the woman and the bird. You speak to me and I have heard:
If I am peaceful, I shall see Beauty's face continually; Feeding on her wine and bread I shall be wholly comforted, For she can make one day for me Rich as my lost eternity.