Analyzing The Poem 'The Groundhog'

“The Groundhog”
The poem begins in June with the speaker exhibiting deranged, angry actions and thoughts about the Groundhog. The poem then transitions to the fall where he feels abandoned and lifeless like the soulless groundhog, next the poem changes to the summer where he seems to notice beauty in his soul and in the groundhog, and finally it transitions to a summer a few years later where he is analyzed as being reciprocated into a new person with only a little left of his past like the groundhog. The speaker and the groundhog are connected by the groundhog representing a problem that occured, gave great struggle, and then was resolved internally, but still remembered through the seasons of the year. In the start of the poem the speaker describes the scene and objects as being “ferocious”, “senseless”, and “flame(ing)” in that June day. He uses harsh words to the tongue to describe his harsh reality. The speaker seems distant by not wanting to face the dead groundhog, but still seeing it on the ground and examining it from afar. He “pokes” the groundhog as to see if it is, but doesn’t dare touch him by hand. I think that the groundhog represents him facing a problem that occurred in his life, although he doesn’t know how to handle it so he examines it from afar. Before the
He now describes the spot with what is left of the groundhog as “beautiful as architecture”. He also shows having found his path because instead of “poke(ing)” the groundhog with and “angry stick”, he rather “cut(s) a walking stick from a birch”. Older people often use walking sticks when they go on adventures and they also are often considered as being wise. He seems to have come to ease about losing the loved one and have become to accept it. Before, during the past summer, he described trying to keep his “reverence for knowledge”, while now he seems