Summary

The poem begins with a description of marriage as some kind of primitive structure predating houses or tents, which may be read as a religious reference as marriage is an ancient concept within human civilizations and has existed, in some form, in all societies. The narrator seems to be one of the people involved in the marriage since the poem ends with the inclusive pronoun “we”, and the narrator seems to be remembering the humble and painful start to the marriage before coming to the feeling of wonder and hope that he or she has survived it and entered the next phase of the journey.

Analysis

Atwood’s poem is fundamentally an exploration of love, partnership, and how life changes with the passage of time. Atwood uses descriptions of nature and shifting landscapes to characterize the state of the marriage. At the start of...