Written as a series of questions and answers, the poem sets a person's choice against the pull of public events. An unseen questioner challenges the speaker for leaving the news of a revolution to stand under an umbrella in the woods, where ice is falling from the trees like rain. The speaker answers simply: the news means nothing if you close your eyes and ears to the world in front of you.
What makes the poem interesting is how it joins the two scenes. The thawing branches, springing upward as the ice breaks off, seem to echo a people "righting themselves." The speaker is careful, though, to call these "incommensurable events," so the comparison is felt rather than neatly explained. The trees are freed whether they like it or not.
The speaker's response is to photograph it, one camera for motion and one for the "immortal soul" of the moment. The final question, why not join in, is left hanging. The mood is quiet and attentive, with a thread of guilt and unease underneath.