Lines: 1-3

The title provides many of the "facts" for this poem at the outset, informing the reader just what the "trouble" is and where it will take place. In the context of the title, therefore, the meaning of the first line is clear: the poem's speaker is a student left behind while all the rest have begun working their math problems, perhaps for a quiz. The scene is a familiar one to many students, and so is the method for coping. The girl resorts to seeking help from her "neighbor," a word traditionally used for a student who sits adjacent to another. If we identify the "I" with Jane Kenyon herself, the farm girl could also have literally been a "neighbor," since the Kenyon family lived across the street from a large working farm in rural Michigan.

Lines: 3-8

In the middle of the third line, we...