New Hampshire · Chapter
Good-Bye and Keep Cold explained
The speaker bids farewell to a young orchard as winter approaches, expressing concern over the various threats it faces from animals and weather, and emphasizing the importance of keeping it cold to protect it.
What happens
The speaker bids farewell to a young orchard as winter approaches, expressing concern over the various threats it faces from animals and weather, and emphasizing the importance of keeping it cold to protect it. He must leave to tend to other trees, trusting the orchard's fate ultimately to God.
Themes in this chapter
Nature and Transience
The poem centers on the orchard's vulnerability through winter and the speaker's temporary departure, highlighting nature's cycles and the transient care humans can provide.
Work and Labor
The speaker's business with 'different trees' and the mention of axe work on maples, birches, and tamaracks underscores the labor involved in tending to the land.
Key passages
“This saying good-bye on the edge of the dark And cold to an orchard so young in the bark Reminds me of all that can happen to harm”
Bidding farewell to a young orchard at the onset of winter makes me think of all the dangers it faces.
The speaker expresses anxiety about leaving the orchard unprotected during the cold season.
“Keep cold, young orchard. Good-bye and keep cold. Dread fifty above more than fifty below.”
Stay cold, young orchard; farewell and remain cold. Fear warmth more than extreme cold.
The speaker advises the orchard that cold is safer than warmth, which could cause premature growth and damage.
“But something has to be left to God.”
Ultimately, some things must be entrusted to a higher power.
The speaker acknowledges human limitations and the need to trust in divine care for the orchard.