Tonight I Can Write the Saddest Lines

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1924

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Symbols & Motifs

The Night Sky

Typically, night is the time for romance, and the speaker notes that it was during the night that they held their love in their arms and that they used to kiss her. At the same time, night can also be lonely. It covers the Earth, and unlike the day sky, makes it hard to see. It is itself a vast emptiness, filled only with small lights that are the stars.

The night sky can indicate mystery, darkness, and anything unknown or vast. This might stand for any mysterious part of life, like the nature of love and loss. When the speaker says that the night is more “immense” now that their lover is gone, they indicate that the vast unknowing mystery seems larger, and they feel more lost in it now that they are alone.

Shivering stars, white tree, bright body

The speaker notes that the stars are “blue and shiver in the distance” (Line 2). Stars typically indicate something cosmic or spiritual. They light the darkness, much like the way someone wise might shed light on a mystery, or a powerful benevolent figure might show someone the way in a time of ignorance. Yet, here, the stars are shivering in the distance, which indicates that they too are fragile and cold. All hope the speaker has for guidance is diminished, unable to provide them with warmth—because even elements made of fire are going cold. The stars are far away, making them hard to reach or feel their fire, suggesting the depths of abandonment and hopelessness.

The night “whitening” the trees also replaces the expected word “light” with “white,” mitigating the potential clarity of those lights and replacing them with a bland color. It is only the body of the lover that the speaker describes as “bright.” Since her brightness is gone, the brightness of the night also dims.

Wind

In the third line, the speaker notes, “The night wind revolves in the sky and sings,” later adding “my voice tried to find the wind to touch her hearing” (Line 23). In both instances, wind is associated with sound. It sings, and it can be used to transport the speaker’s voice to the ears of their beloved. The wind acts as a cosmic and carnal force, a go-between that connects people across distances. In the first instance, the wind “revolves” in the sky and sings. This is a contrast to the idea of wind taking a voice to someone’s hearing. Taking a voice would act as a straight line or an arrow. The wind moves a sound from one place to another. The wind moving in a circle does not stop at a destination and deliver a message, but rather moves for the sake of moving and returns to the place from whence it began.

The “song” the speaker sings, presumably, will not reach their former lover. It too revolves in the sky but then comes back to the speaker, not delivering a message to anyone, but echoing a sound back. This “revolution” however, creates a song. Songs present harmony, structure, and a sound that is pleasing to listeners. The speaker makes the poem for the same reason that the wind makes a revolution, to create a beautiful sound, even if the speaker is the only one who hears it.