The speaker asks a companion to remember hiking up toward a mountain lake. Rounding the last bend, they were stopped cold—not by difficulty, but by the overwhelming beauty of snow still lying in summer. The phrase “hammered down” gives that moment real force: wonder hits them almost physically. Even the gray jays that land on their knees looking for crumbs can’t distract them for long. The speaker still seems caught in that memory, wanting the other person to feel it again too. There is tenderness in the shared “we,” and the whole poem holds a quiet, breathless awe, like standing before something so bright and unexpected that the ordinary world briefly falls away.
Four — Summary
Remember climbing to the lakes basin? How, rounding that last bend, we were hammered down by the glory of summer snow —
Even the gray jays alighting on our knees to seek crumbs could not long bend our eyes away.