Sestina Symbolism, Imagery & Wordplay

Tears drop their way throughout this poem. They're used both literally—the grandmother cries—and figuratively—to describe the tea, for example. Because they pop up so many times, their meanin...

September is the first month of fall. It's the first word of the poem and proves to be pretty important. The poem is dominated by this feeling of sadness and of general dread—something bad is com...

The poem takes place inside the house (in the kitchen to be exact), and that house becomes practically its own character in the poem. The house, to put it simply, is missing something. There's a gr...