A Time Past is a beautiful, nostalgic poem about a lost love in which the speaker chooses to reminisce about the beautiful moments of the ended relationship. The first stanza starts with the memory of a fall morning that the speaker shared with her husband that she loved very much. The "old wooden steps" are symbolic, representing the memories that she is so fond of. The wooden steps have been replaced by granite ones and they remained to live only in her mind. The memories of her great love would live in her mind although other newer and even beautiful things happened in her life. I would like to speculate on the fact that in this second stanza the "wooden steps" could represent her husband that she separated from and is now "gone". Maybe the "handsome" stairs that replaced the old ones represent a new lover in the speaker's life. The granite is a stone somewhat cold which could represent a new relationship that lacks the passion and ardor although "handsome".
The image "my hands still feel their splinters" is one of my favorite. Even though the speaker chooses to remember the great times she is still feeling the painful moments that come with every broken relationship. Memories bring more memories of other tender moments the speaker spent with close friends. The steps are meaningful for the speaker and could represent also a space of personal time, of meditative thoughts and definitely a space filled with memories of love ("And sitting there 'in my life', often, alone or with my husband).
Levertov's steps remind me of Frost's ladder.
I agree with you. I really like how you got so much out of the poem. I agree that its about a relationship that is gone, possibly due to death. And how the narrator has so many memories of her life and how her home brings them back to her and how she correlates them with assumingly her husband.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... but can we assume that the the memory of the moment that occasions the poem involves the speaker's husband? The wooden steps seem to pre-date the husband (see S 3)--who else could this "youthful" voice from the speaker's past--the past before marriage-- belong to (though, finally, the particular person may be less important--in fact, the question unanswerable-- than the emotional situation)?
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