Even now this landscape is assembling.
-- The Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: The first line touches on transitions, a theme that appears throughout the poem. Before describing the autumnal post-harvest setting, Glück characterizes the landscape as somewhat animate. The present continuous tense reinforces a sense of ongoing change.

The oxen sleep in their blue yoke
-- The Speaker (Lines 2-3)

Importance: This slightly disconcerting detail stands out in the way it contrasts labor and rest. Animals are typically only yoked when they work to pull a heavy load, so the fact that these oxen sleep in a yoke indicates the possibility of neglect or interrupted work. Yokes are also not conventionally painted blue, which could mean that the color symbolizes the evening light.

the sheaves bound evenly and piled at the roadside among cinquefoil, as the toothed moon rises:
-- The Speaker (Lines 5-7)

Importance: A sheaf is a bundle of grain stalks laid lengthwise and tied together after reaping. The neatness of the bound and piled...