February: Personal Reflection

This poem seemed to carry a dark metaphorical tone. The speaker describes "sex and territory" as "what will finish us all off." This statement conveys a bleak tone that the world will end up destroyed due to humanities' own flaws. Also, the speaker talks of death very casualy when he describes his cat frequently checking to see if he is dead. This casual talk of death implies that the speaker is indifferent on the subject of death and seems to be just simply waiting for it. Through images of pollution pouring out of chimneys to keep him warm, the speaker associates the month of February with that of gloom and depression. In the last line, I found the final statement "make it spring" to be very profound. To me, it seems that the speaker is representing the bad times and depressed outlook on the world with the month of February. Spring symbolizes the happiness that the speaker so desperately wants, needs, and is asking for.