How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
…Then when I was sixteen, you left on a long journey (15)
No biggie—the speaker's hubby has gone away. He'll come back, right? Well, in this poem he doesn't. The husband's journey is the event that triggers the feelings of loss and isolation that the speaker experiences.
Quote #2
And then came the Fifth-month, more than I could bear,
And I tried to hear the monkeys in your lofty far-off sky (17-18)
Only five months into her separation from her husband, the speaker finds that it's really, really hard being separated from her lover. The fact that she can't "bear" the separation suggests just how lonely she's feeling. She also tries to overcome her isolation by trying "to hear the monkeys in [his] […] far-off sky." That is, she's trying to imagine and hear the landscape that he's living in far away from her (which presumably has a bunch of monkeys running around and making noises).
Quote #3
And now, in the Eighth-month, yellowing butterflies
Hover, two by two, in our west garden grasses (23-24)
The image of the yellow butterflies hovering "two by two" gives us a sense of how lonely the speaker feels. She's noticing that the butterflies are in pairs; they're with their butterfly-sweethearts. But she's alone, without her significant other (aww).
Quote #4
And because of all this, my heart is breaking
And I hear for my bright cheeks, lest they fade (25-26)
Here is the first time that the speaker explicitly expresses her sadness: her "heart is breaking." She's so lonely and isolated, that she's afraid that even her beautiful bright cheeks will "fade." The image of the fading cheeks also suggests that the speaker may actually be getting physically ill from her isolation. She's becoming pale and sickly looking—not good.