AttitudesThrough the blunt opening of the "people...putting up storm windows," Nemerov illustrates the image of the "heavy rain" and "crushed grass' in a melchanoly, regretful tone. By this tone, the poem imitates the feel of a depressing rainy day. This tone fits the ominous theme that life laid cautious will be regretful and dreamless. And even the setting of the grass, storm windows, and rain emerges to that "lonely afternoon" due to the use of this lonesome tone. Alas, the insight conveyed by Nemerov is complement to the ill-saddening tone of the "Storm Windows."
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Shifts
A shift occurs at the couplet in stanza seventeen, but still reverts back to the longing, regretful tone in the last stanza. Throughout the poem, an ashamed, remorseful tone is prevalent until the speaker's actual thought is revealed when he quotes, " Unspeakable, the distance in the mind!" in stanza seventeen. This surprise almost acts as a stream of consciousness narration in which the narrator is in a constant thought of the storm windows until he abruptly thinks of how the human mind works. This shift reflects the humor Nemerov is widely know for as it acknowledges how even in such an ill day, humor can be somewhat represented. Also, through the use of the exclamation mark, which is the first punctation used other than a common, the narrator signals a slight shift in subject to a random thought. This conveys a personal and humane thought of the speaker.
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