Sublimation — Summary

water back to ice and ice to air

being no green man I journey in our own garden

a bed in our part of night

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 title is a science word: sublimation is when a solid turns straight into gas, skipping the liquid stage. The poem opens by running water's cycle in an odd direction, water back to ice, and ice to air, as if things are being undone or thinned out until they nearly vanish.

The speaker then says "being no green man," which seems to mean they aren't some wild nature figure or expert of the woods. Instead they travel only in "our own garden," a small, familiar, shared place. The word "our" suggests a partner or household, though the poem doesn't say who.

The last lines, "a bed in our part / of night," shrink the world further, down to a bed and a slice of darkness that belongs to the two of them. The mood is quiet, intimate and a little dreamy. Things fade and change state, but the speaker seems content with a modest, close-to-home kind of wandering.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
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