Skunk Hour Isolation Quotes

This line isn't about our speaker, but reflects the isolation of the townspeople. The old lady stays in alone all the time.

Again, Lowell reinforces that this a place where people like to keep to themselves. It doesn't exactly give us a warm and fuzzy feeling about the town.

OK, so this isn't the most serious part of the poem, but it gives us the sense that the population decreases on the island during the off-season, and that it gets a little lonelier.

Sad and lonely! Our speaker drives up the hill looking for signs of love and activity in his town, because he is all by himself.

Hearing the love song on another's car radio reminds our speaker of how loveless and lonely he is.

This is a literal example of his isolation. Nobody's around.

That the skunks are there further reinforces the fact that there are no people around. In fact, they're free to roam the streets because it's so darn empty in the town!

This mystery "you" (implied in the "our") that's missing throughout the poem makes our speaker seems even sadder. It makes us think that maybe he once had a companion that he now longs for on those lonely nights.