Let all stand still / Without final direction." A broader metaphysical and existential statement is made, too, as the narrator notes "that which brings you into the world / to take you away at death / Is one and the same." The natural universe, including snails and the grass they feed on, is a setting rich with meaning and metaphor.
Poems like "Cockroach" and "The Inner Man" have more global, rather than specific, settings that nevertheless allow the theme of the poem to emerge. For example, cockroach is about personal and collective identity, which is naturally linked to geography and place when it comes to ethnicity and nationality. In "The Inner Man," the narrator also refers to global themes of setting, place, and space. "We poke the same / Ugly mug / at the world." The actual hallmarks of setting are nebulous in "The Inner Man," but the atmosphere...
In "Fear," a tree is more of a motif or symbol than it is an element of place or setting.
In "Summer Morning," on the other hand, the narrator uses geographic locality to convey the central theme. The poem begins with an awakening, as the narrator literally emerges from bed in the morning to greet a new day. The setting is decidedly rural and bucolic. "There's a smell of damp hay, / of horses, laziness, / Summer sky and eternal life." A positive, optimistic, and uplifting poem, "Summer Morning" is unique among Simic's work. The poem "Dismantling the Silence" is more morbid in tone, with imagery of coffins reminding the reader of the geography of death. Coffins create a permanent geographic locality, a final resting place, for the body. Yet the body is useless without the…
