Text commentary of a poem by Robert Graves, "Lovers in Winter". It was part of an introductory course to English literature during 1st yr at university.

ESSAY ON A POEM Robert Graves, "Lovers in winter" The poem identifies nature images with feelings in both stanzas. In the first one it compares a tree to a person (the poetic I) and wind to the You's cruelty. In the second one there is a link between backward and the green branches (an image of happy past) and forward and ill weather (an image of unpleasant present). Furthermore, the poem has rhyme in each …

…to avoid bad periods and dull life is to use the goodness of the past against this. In the poem's words, the green branches from the past (spring and summer) left in winter can help the tree to resist it. The poem's moral is that in order to solve problems in the present we should look forward and improve things with the remains of happiness we still have. We should never look backward and sorrow.