Solo — Summary

while I tried to compose a duo in a rain-drunk land who could it be singing with so much pleasure to herself

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The speaker is busy trying to write a duo, a piece of music for two, in a land soaked with rain. The word "compose" suggests careful, deliberate work, and the title "Solo" hints at the irony: the speaker is attempting something for two while being alone. Then a sound interrupts. Someone is singing, and the speaker wonders who it could be.

What stands out is the contrast. The speaker is striving, while the unseen singer simply sings "with so much pleasure / to herself." Nothing is being produced or performed for anyone. The song seems to exist only for its own joy, and that is exactly what the speaker, mid-effort, may be missing.

The mood is quiet, curious, and a little wistful. "Rain-drunk" is a lovely phrase, making the whole landscape feel loose and happy, as if the singer belongs to it. The poem ends on a question, leaving us listening along with the speaker, charmed and perhaps slightly envious.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Painted Trillium

Trillium undulatum Painted lady, late riser, you rush out of the ground, get pollinated on the fly
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Initiation

Let him continue in the ground, he who is now dead, where all things hurry—
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss