Point of View

“February” is told from the perspective of a speaker who has grown cynical over the course of a long, cold winter. Despite the speaker’s access to food and shelter, the sub-zero temperatures outside evoke feelings of scarcity and despair. The speaker also has company in the form of a house cat, but social alienation may also be contributing to the speaker’s distress. This can be seen in the form of wry critiques, including that some humans should be castrated or that humanity should eat the young in an evolutionary bid to cull out the weak. This way, the speaker insinuates that overpopulation would no longer threaten to destroy the planet. Though February is often associated with romantic love, the speaker refers to love as a force that will “[do] us in” (19). In other words, the speaker defines love as capable of both sustaining...