At first, the poem feels like a riddle. A speaker watches twenty men walking over a bridge into a village and turns the simple scene over, trying different ways to say it: are there twenty separate crossings, twenty villages, or just one man and one bridge? The repetition makes ordinary action feel strange, as if language can’t quite settle on the truth. The speaker calls it an “old song / That will not declare itself,” suggesting that the meaning is real but refuses to be pinned down. Then the writing becomes plain and physical: boots clump, a white wall rises through fruit-trees. Just as the speaker asks, “Of what was it I was thinking?” the meaning slips away. The ending lingers on that white wall and the fruit-trees, not explaining them. The mood is calm, detached, and quietly puzzled—like trying to catch a thought that disappears when you look at it.
Metaphors of a Magnifico — Summary
Twenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges, Into twenty villages, Or one man Crossing a single bridge into a village.
This is old song That will not declare itself ...
Twenty men crossing a bridge, Into a village, Are Twenty men crossing a bridge Into a village.
That will not declare itself Yet is certain as meaning ...
The boots of the men clump On the boards of the bridge. The first white wall of the village Rises through fruit-trees. Of what was it I was thinking?
So the meaning escapes.
The first white wall of the village ... The fruit-trees....