Robert Graves
”Here by a snowbound river
In scrapen holes we shiver,
And like old bitterns we
Boom to you plaintively:
Robert, how can I rhyme
Verses for your desire—
Sleek fauns and cherry-time,
Vague music and green trees,
Hot sun and gentle breeze,
England in June attire,
And life born young again,
For your gay goatish brute
Drunk with warm melody
Singing on beds of thyme
With red and rolling eye,
Waking with wanton lute
All the Devonian plain,
Lips dark with juicy stain,
Ears hung with bobbing fruit?
Why should I keep him time?
Why in this cold and rime,
Where even to dream is pain?
No, Robert, there’s no reason:
Cherries are out of season,
Ice grips at branch and root,
And singing birds are mute.
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Analysis (AI Assisted)
This poem, filled with vivid and somewhat jarring imagery, contrasts two sharply different worlds: the harsh reality of a snowbound, war-torn present, and an idyllic, romanticized vision of a peaceful, lush England in summer. It’s a poem about the struggle to reconcile these worlds, particularly in the face of war, and the difficulty of creating beauty or joy when surrounded by suffering and desolation.
The speaker opens with an image of cold, bleak conditions. “Here by a snowbound river / In scrapen holes we shiver” sets the tone of deprivation and hardship. The soldiers are in the trenches, the “scrapen holes” alluding to their makeshift shelters, the starkness of their existence emphasized by the freezing cold and isolation. The comparison to “old bitterns,” which are seabirds that make a plaintive, mournful cry, further suggests their despair, as they, too, seem trapped in a place of misery, calling out to a distant figure—Robert.
“Robert” here seems to serve as both a personal address and a literary allusion, perhaps to Robert Graves, the poet and soldier, or to some idealized figure who represents an England untouched by war, symbolized by “Sleek fauns and cherry-time.” The poem contrasts the harsh, wintry present with a more innocent, joyful vision of life—“England in June attire,” “fauns,” “green trees,” and “hot sun.” These are pastoral images, evoking a pre-war world that is full of warmth, music, and natural beauty. This imagery feels like a longing for something distant, perhaps unattainable, especially in the conditions described in the first few lines.
However, the speaker soon grapples with the impossibility of reconciling these two worlds. The imagery of “life born young again” and the vision of a carefree, “goatish brute / Drunk with warm melody” seems playful, even hedonistic, but it is also contrasted with the brutal cold they are enduring. This “goatish brute,” drunk on melody and living in a summer world of cherries and fruit, stands as an idealized version of life that feels increasingly remote in the speaker’s current, grim reality.
The poet’s struggle to find meaning in the present is embodied in the line “Why should I keep him time?” The speaker seems to ask why they should bother holding on to the vision of a better, warmer life when everything around them is harsh and unyielding. The more they try to recall or even romanticize that vision, the more out of reach it seems, particularly when they are reminded that “cherries are out of season,” a stark metaphor for the inaccessibility of beauty, warmth, and hope in the middle of war.
By the end of the poem, the speaker seems to resign to the reality of their situation: “No, Robert, there’s no reason.” They are trapped in a world of “ice,” “branch and root” frozen, where “singing birds are mute.” There is no space for the carefree joy of summer or the sweet sounds of life. The juxtaposition of the speaker’s longing for something better and the brutal, frigid reality they are experiencing speaks to the inner conflict felt by soldiers during the war: the attempt to find meaning or beauty in the face of overwhelming suffering and despair.
Overall, the poem captures the futility and disillusionment of trying to escape the harshness of war through imagination or idealization. It paints a picture of a soldier’s mind trying to reach for something that seems just beyond grasp—beauty, life, peace—and ultimately finding only cold emptiness. This tension between the warmth of memory and the brutal present speaks to the mental and emotional toll that war takes on those who fight it. The struggle to maintain a sense of beauty, even a yearning for it, in the midst of despair, is a poignant theme that resonates throughout the poem.