Mean Time - Other Notes

The poem reflects on the failure of a romantic relationship. (Themes: failure of romantic love, time in terms of diminishment, regret, death, alienation, liminality).

Frequent use of caesura together with the truncated meter, falling cadence, and with BB pronounced rhyme scheme conveys a grim sense of termination.

Penultimate poem of the collection - it is nihilistic and morbid sense of despair mitigated in part by prayer?

Mean time: ambiguous nature of title (see notes about the collection)

Time is conveyed in terms of diminishment, sadness, and regret.

Poem takes the form of a dramatic monologue and generally written in free verse which, together with simple language, conveys an authentic sense of an interior monologue and sincere emotion with which the poet voice addresses both her ex lover and the reader.