till you came at last to the edge of the woods
-- The Speaker (Line 5)

Importance: This line ends in the first end stop of the poem, creating a sense of finality before the stanza’s closing line. The moment represents a physical and metaphorical threshold between one state of being and the next: civilization and the unknown, childhood and the pitfalls of young adulthood. It also marks a tonal shift from the modern-day imagery of the opening lines to the fairy-tale mood that follows.

You might ask why. Here’s why. Poetry.
-- The Speaker (Line 13)

Importance: This use of the pronoun “you” implies a retrospective; the speaker is telling the story of her foolish youth to the reader from a perspective of introspection. The speaker acknowledges the danger of her situation by stating that the reader might reasonably question it; in response, she offers “poetry” as an explanation. The term can be interpreted in multiple ways, including the...