16 pages • 32 minutes read
Galway KinnellWait
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1980A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Seasons and Timing
Kinnell uses the motif of time and proper timing in arguing for the listener to embrace living their whole life. The title itself implies that it is not yet time, in this case, for life to end; this motif recurs throughout the poem. The speaker’s plea that the listener “trust the hours” (Line 3) first centers the importance of time in the poem, and the repetition of “will become interesting” (Lines 6-8) solidifies focus on a future time when love will renew. This motif also extends to the images Kinnell uses: In the first stanza, the surprise of something occurring at the wrong time, such as “Buds that open out of season” (Line 8) symbolizes the possibility of love unexpectedly returning to the listener’s life.
As the poem concludes, the motif of time evolves beyond a plea to wait for love to one urging the listener to stay to hear their whole life play out. The speaker says, “don’t go too early” (Line 17), asserting there is inevitably more life to live, and more experiences (good and bad) to have, and suicide would cut that short. The speaker urges of the music of those experiences, “Be there to hear it, it will be the only time, / most of all to hear your whole existence, / rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion” (Lines 24-26). Here, timing is of the utmost importance, as a life that has not been totally exhausted, or emptied of its potential, is a life cut short too soon. Only arriving at that total exhaustion can the listener truly hear the full music of their life.
Music
In the second stanza of the poem, music becomes a symbol for life. While the listener is heartbroken, Kinnell observes they are deaf to the “music of hair, / music of pain, / music of looms weaving our loves again” (Lines 21-24). The symbol of music echoes in the rhythmic motion of the loom creatively weaving something complex and whole. The speaker urges that this music can be heard if the listener “Only wait a little and listen” (Line 20). By listening until that music—which has been “rehearsed” (Line 26)—can “play itself into total exhaustion” (Line 26), one will have heard their “whole existence” (Line 25). Here, the full life is symbolized by a music forming a gradual crescendo of experiences and climaxes in total exhaustion—natural death.
Trust and Distrust
The poem begins with a concession to the listener, “Distrust everything if you have to” (Line 2), acknowledging that there has been a fundamental breech of trust. Reality is not trustworthy, except for, the speaker asserts, “the hours” (Line 3), which have carried the listener until now. While this opening acknowledgement seems bleak, Kinnell’s poem uses the motif of trust and distrust to augment the listener’s faith in healing and love. The speaker insists that “personal events” (Line 5), “hair” (Line 6), “pain” (Line 7) and “buds that open out of season” (Line 8) will become interesting again because the hours will carry the listener past the point of sorrow and distrust. Kinnell’s speaker implicitly asks that the listener trust that emptiness itself will lead to fulfillment by its very nature (Lines 12-14), and in the second stanza this plea is repeated where “music of hair, / music of pain, / music of looms” (Lines 21-23) will be renewed with the passage of time. Kinnell does not ask that the listener place faith in him, but rather this motif is tied to the nature of time, of emptiness, and of love, all which drive toward a renewal until life has naturally completed itself.
Related Titles
By Galway Kinnell
