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Waterfall
green darkness.” The excitement and mysteriousness of young
SUMMARY love have faded; they no longer hold allure for her. Where once
water seemed to reflect a love that was “motionless, as if for
The speaker insists that she's not asking to be young again or to
ever,” now the speaker is much more aware of the fact that time
slow down time: she knows that time, like a river, flows only one
never stops moving.
way. Time absorbs her life like a river absorbs a beautiful
waterfall—a waterfall in which the speaker can see all the The speaker doesn’t dream of “delay[ing]” this process, but
events of her life rushing past like shining drops of water, rather tries to appreciate “minute by glinting minute,” acutely
always vanishing. aware of what she has to be grateful for. Rather than mourning
the passage of young love, then, the speaker instead savors
Nor, the speaker goes on, does she want her beloved to be
what has replaced it: a mature relationship based on mutual
young again, or to feel the young love they shared again—back
respect and understanding.
when love felt like a dark, bittersweet-smelling forest, and still
pools of water seemed to hold their reflections frozen in time. Now, the speaker says, “it is enough [...] to come into a room /
and find [...] kindness.” The speaker's relationship now may not
These days, the speaker says, all she wants is to see the
be exciting, but it is satisfying and gentle. Time has shaped and
comfortable love she and her partner share in her partner's
changed this relationship; years have “chastened”—or
alert, trusting eyes and his worn face, aged by years of thought
subdued—the couple into more “careful” creatures. The pair
and discernment. She wants to sit down and have everyday
now trust and respect each other more wisely and deeply than
conversations with her partner, not constantly think back on
they did in youth. The speaker says it is enough for them to
the past.
simply “sit in the afternoons,” talking “without nostalgia.” In
But when the speaker's partner leaves the room (looking other words, they’re not longing for the way things used to be.
cheerful and energetic, not because he's young and lively, but They are content with the life they have now.
because he's making an effort), she feels sudden passionate
Yet, despite the speaker’s satisfaction with this more mature
love for him. She remembers in those moments that the
relationship, she sometimes surprises herself by feeling as
waterfall of life, no matter how beautiful it is, is always rushing
passionately as she once did. This passion is different from
past, hurrying on toward the deep waters of death.
young love, as it springs from the realization that even what she
has now will someday soon escape her. The speaker notes that,
THEMES sometimes, when this person leaves, she finds herself lit up
with “a quick / intensity” of love. This sudden ignition of feeling
is due to the realization that “water [...] falls fast / and only once
TIME, AGING, AND LOVE to the dark pool below.” It is the knowledge of time’s passage
“Waterfall” is about the ways time and aging affect and her own eventual death that gives the present moment its
love and relationships. Like a waterfall that plummets intensity and urgency, providing the speaker with a renewed
into a river below, the speaker sees her life moving inevitably sense of passion. The poem ultimately suggests that, while
towards death. There is no stopping this process, and the young love may stem from the idea that a relationship will last
speaker accepts the fact she will thus never again experience forever, mature love comes from the knowledge that it won’t.
the lush excitement of young love. Instead, she appreciates
what she has now: a relationship that is wiser for its years. Yet, Where this theme appears in the poem:
sometimes this very knowledge of time’s passage moves her to
• Lines 1-24
feel a sudden and surprising passion. In this way, the poem
suggests that knowing love will all soon be gone can make it all
the more precious.
The poem begins with the speaker acknowledging her own
LINE-BY
LINE-BY-LINE
-LINE ANAL
ANALYSIS
YSIS
mortality, comparing her life to “the jewelled arc of the
LINES 1-3
waterfall” which eventually joins “time’s irreversible river.” And
as the speaker ages, she realizes she no longer experiences love I do not ...
the way she did when she was young and everything seemed as ... of the waterfall
if it would last forever. She doesn’t imagine that the person she The poem begins with a metaphor
metaphor: the speaker says she isn't
loves will suddenly be young again and appear to her “in love’s asking to be young again, or to "delay / [...] time's irreversible

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river." In other words, the speaker understands time as a river As these brief, jewellike moments occur, the speaker sees them
that flows in only one direction: toward old age and, eventually, briefly lit up by sunlight—imagery
imagery that symbolically suggests
death. awareness and illumination. In other words, in embracing life's
By comparing time to a river that will swallow up the "jewelled beauty and brevity, the speaker is connecting to some innate
arc of the waterfall" (i.e. her life—more on this in a second), the truth about what it means to be alive.
speaker illustrates the sheer force of time, which stops for LINES 7-9
nothing—and also acknowledges that the process of living,
aging, and dying is natural. She wants to appreciate the beauty I do not ...
and brevity of her one life, while also not fighting the flow of the ... spices the air
way things are meant to be. In other words, she is trying to In the second stanza, the speaker again insists that she's not
grow old gracefully and confront her mortality with acceptance asking to reverse time. This time she addresses someone else, a
rather than fear and bitterness. beloved, saying that she doesn't dream that he'll:
The waterfall itself is a metaphor for the speaker's own life:
both breathtaking and fleeting. The imagery of the waterfall's come to me darkly in lo
lovve's green darkness
"jewelled arc" immediately suggests that there is a trajectory to where the dust of the br
brack
acken
en spices the air
the speaker's life: a beginning, middle, and end to the speaker's
life. But this transient "arc" is also "jewelled": something to be The lush, murky imagery here suggests the fertility and
admired and wondered at, not taken for granted or resisted. mystery of young love—presumably a love she shared with the
"you" she's speaking to now. Such love is characterized not only
The poem's structure mirrors this bright flow. For instance, the
by "green[ery]" and "spic[iness]," which suggest vitality and
speaker's enjambment across lines 1-3 (and throughout much
excitement, but also by "darkness."
of the poem) imitates the ceaseless movement of time's
metaphorical waters, which cannot be "delay[ed]" and which The polyptoton on the word "dark" characterizes not just the
eventually claim each and every life. place ("green dark
darkness") the lovers are in, but also the
demeanor of the beloved ("dark
darkly"). In other words, it seems
And the musicality of the consonance and assonance in these
that the passion of youth was a double-edged sword. Young
lines ("iin the ri
risiing of tiime's irr
irrevver
ersiible riv
river
er / thatt takkes the
love was beautiful, but dark confusion lurks just beneath the
jewwelllled arcc of the watterfallll") helps to emphasize the speaker's
vibrancy of the speaker's memories.
understanding of life's fleeting beauty.
The metaphor of love being a "green darkness" also suggests
LINES 4-6 that love is complicated, regardless of how old the person
in which I ... experiencing it might be. "Green" suggests newness,
... fast, fast falling. tenderness, and the sunlight of spring or summer. On the other
hand, darkness suggests mystery and even blindness. In this
In the "jewelled arc" of her life's "waterfall," the speaker goes
way, the speaker seems to recall a time when she was so caught
on, she:
up in the fervor of love that she couldn't see or think clearly. Or
perhaps she is simply unable to recall young love clearly now
[...] glimpses, minute by glinting minute
minute,
that so many years have passed!
all that I have and all I am always losing
Either way, the speaker doesn't "dream" of, or hope for, this kind
In other words, this late in her life, the speaker appreciates of love anymore.
each and every moment, savoring them all with the knowledge LINES 10-12
that they will soon be gone.
moss, crushed, gives ...
The /gl/ alliter
alliteration
ation in "gl
glimpse" and "gl
glinting" draws attention ... if for ever.
to the relationship between brevity and beauty: part of what
makes each moment so precious is the fact that it will never Perhaps the reason the speaker no longer "dreams" of young
come again. And the diacope on the words "minute" and "all" (in love is because it left a bittersweet taste in her memory.
bold above) slows the reader down so that they experience, Expanding her vision of her lover visiting her in "green
alongside the speaker, this feeling of zooming in on each darkness," she describes "moss" being "crushed" and emitting
precious moment before it is gone. "an astringent sweetness."

But even as the speaker tries to appreciate these moments, In other words, in the heat of love, the speaker and her beloved
they seem to slip from her grasp. The swift repetition here, like broke something—something which left a complicated scent in
the later epizeuxis of "fast,
fast, fast falling," suggests how quickly the air, a scent that is both biting and sweet. This olfactory (or
moments expire, one after the other. smell-based) imagery evokes the speaker's contradictory

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memories of young love: beautiful, but also painful. And smooth also "trustful." The speaker says that their faces have become
/s/ sibilance and sharp /t/ consonance come together in the "chastened" (or humbled) from all this "careful judgement." This
phrase "aststringentt sweettness
ss," as if to emphasize love's imagery implies that their relationship hasn't been all roses—it
contradictions. has at times been rocky and perhaps even painful, enough so
Part of the pain of this memory is that this passion the lovers that they feel a little worn down.
felt for each other didn't survive. The speaker can remember Despite all this, or perhaps because of it, they have learned "to
"water hold[ing their] reflections / motionless, as if for ever." In sit in the afternoons / in mild conversation." The intensity of
other words, at the time, it felt like their love was beautiful youth is gone; what remains is a tender companionship. The
because it would never end. Now, looking back, the speaker speaker says that they are not "nostalgi[c]" for the way things
understands that all love must eventually end, one way or the used to be. Instead, they are existing in the present, content
other. with where they've ended up.
But now, she also sees that love's brevity (and life's brevity!) A combination of smooth /s/ sibilance and sharp /t/ consonance
don't diminish love or life, but infuse them with even greater in this passage recalls the "ast
stringentt sweettness
ss" of their
significance. younger love:

LINES 13-15 but trust

stful st
still, facce chasstened by years
It is enough ... of careful judgementt; to sitt in the aftternoons
... that are shrewd in mild converssation, withoutt nost stalgia.
The speaker describes the way that her relationship with her
beloved has changed since they were young. She doesn't need The /t/ consonance interrupts the smooth flow of sibilance,
the headiness of wild green love anymore: now, it's "enough" to perhaps hinting at a kind of delicate formality as the couple
enjoy "the kindness we have for each other." practices being careful with each other. Because they have hurt
each other in the past, they know each other's tender places.
They now share a different kind of feeling, something they
Part of the "kindness" that they have now comes from being
"call[...] love," but which might be a feeling for which they don't
attentive to each other's needs and not making the same
quite have a name. The "shrewd" (or sharp-witted and
mistakes that they've made before.
observant) relationship they have now is tempered by
"kindness." They know each other inside and out; there are no LINES 19-24
more illusions of eternal passion, just a kind of quiet
But when you ...
understanding and care.
... dark pool below.
The alliter
alliteration
ation ("ccome," "kkindness," "ccalling") and /n/ and /m/
In the final stanza, the speaker changes her tune a little,
consonance ("en nough," "nnow," "comme," "room m," "fin
nd," "kin
ndness")
admitting that the simpler, kinder relationship the couple has
in these lines amplify this quietly meaningful moment. These
achieved is sometimes disturbed by a resurgence of their old
are not buoyant, bouncy sounds, but restrained, gentle ones,
passion. When her loved one leaves the room, she says, his
suggestive of the way the couple's relationship has softened
brave, effortful "jauntiness" sometimes overcomes her with a
and matured over the years.
"quick / intensity" of love. Seeing him leave, the poem implies,
There is likewise a simplicity to the language here that reminds her that he won't be around forever. Any kind of leave-
contrasts with the previous stanza's vibrancy. Like the couple's taking, short or long, can feel final when one considers the
relationship, the language is stripped down, devoid of brevity of life.
decoration.
The speaker's mature wisdom infuses the moment with
And the speaker's honest admission that what they have now is urgency. Realizing that what they have will someday come to an
something they can only "call[]" love is quietly moving. The end, the speaker is suddenly flooded with the desire to hold on
speaker isn't fooling herself; something has shifted to what's in front of her. At this moment, she is reminded of the
considerably between her and her beloved. She doesn't cast metaphor of the waterfall.
judgement on this shift, but accepts it, saying that what they
The poem concludes with imagery of that waterfall, which
have now is "enough" for her.
"however luminous and grand, falls fast / and only once to the
LINES 16-18 dark pool below." In other words, no matter how beautiful or
wonderful, every single life will eventually be carried away by
but trustful still, ...
time's ever-moving current. A life, like a plunging waterfall,
... conversation, without nostalgia.
moves quickly; it is there and then gone in the blink of an eye.
Not only are the couple's eyes "shrewd" (or sharp and
By returning to the metaphor of life as a waterfall, the poet
observant) from years of navigating their relationship, they are

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makes clear that this poem isn't just about this particular
relationship. Rather, the relationship is an example of the way • Lines 11-12: “and water holds our reflections /
that time shapes and changes everything, including love. Seen motionless, as if for ever.”
rightly, the speaker suggests, the unstoppable movement of • Lines 22-23: “remembering that water, / however
time doesn't have to be frightening. Rather, time can imbue luminous and grand, falls fast”
every moment of life with significance and value. • Line 24: “and only once to the dark pool below.”
There is a kind of beauty to this impermanence, a beauty
echoed in onomatopoeic language that imitates the movement
of the waterfall: liquid /l/ consonance ("lluminous," "falllls," "onlly," POETIC DEVICES
"pooll," "bellow") and spray-like /f/ alliter
alliteration
ation ("ffalls fast").
While the imagery of the waterfall cascading irrevocably into
ENJAMBMENT
the darkness "below" may feel a little ominous on first read, A combination of enjambed and end-stopped lines sets the
that "darkness" merely mirrors the darkness of love in the pace of the poem.
second stanza. Just as there was a "darkness" to young love, so In the first stanza, for instance, the first three lines are
is there an inability to see beyond the "dark pool" that waits at enjambed, mirroring the idea that the speaker can't "delay" the
the end of each life. But the repetition here suggests that this metaphorical river of time. The poem sweeps along without
inevitable and mysterious conclusion has its own richness, too. slowing down, reflecting exactly what the speaker is saying:
The speaker doesn't seem to be afraid of death so much as time stops for no one.
inspired by it.
The next two lines end with images of water ("river,"
"waterfall"), and the enjambment here continues to support the
idea of time flowing quickly past. The next three lines, however,
SYMBOLS go back and forth between being end-stopped and enjambed:

WATER [...] minute by glinting minute,

In this poem, the speaker uses a waterfall to all that I have and all I am always losing
symbolize life itself and its inevitable movement. She as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling.
describes her life and everything in it as "the jewelled arc of the
waterfall," and sees it falling "fast, fast" into the river below. In The first end-stop here—a gentle comma—slows down the rush
other words, with the perspective of age, she is coming to of enjambments, suggesting that the speaker has paused to get
appreciate both the brevity and the beauty of life. a good look at her life as a whole. But the enjambment in line 5
reminds readers of the speaker's big insight: people can pause
The river that this waterfall feeds is also symbolic, representing
to consider, but time always flows on, and eventually takes
"time's irreversible" flow. In other words, just as a river flows
everything away. Finally, line 6 is end-stopped, suggesting the
only in one direction, so does a person's time on earth. The
finality of death. (In fact each stanza concludes with an end-
river "takes" the waterfall just as time will eventually swallow
stopped line, bringing the speaker back to a firm "ending" over
the speaker's life.
and over.)
The speaker says that when she and her loved one were
Overall, the poem's mixture of enjambments and end-stopped
younger, it seemed as if the water would hold their "reflections
lines suggests that, though the speaker can do nothing to slow
/ motionless, as if for ever." This speaks to the way youth cannot
time down, she can at least learn to appreciate the beauty of
understand the way time will shape and change their love.
what's in front of her before it's gone.
But water, the speaker says, "falls fast / and only once to the
dark pool below." As she gets older, the speaker realizes how
Where Enjambment appears in the poem:
little time she's always had, that almost all of it is already gone,
and that there's no getting it back. • Lines 1-2: “delay / in”
• Lines 2-3: “river / that”
Where this symbol appears in the poem: • Lines 3-4: “waterfall / in”
• Lines 5-6: “losing / as”
• Lines 1-6: “I do not ask for youth, nor for delay / in the • Lines 8-9: “darkness / where”
rising of time's irreversible river / that takes the jewelled • Lines 9-10: “air / moss”
arc of the waterfall / in which I glimpse, minute by • Lines 10-11: “sweetness / and”
glinting minute, / all that I have and all I am always losing • Lines 11-12: “reflections / motionless”
/ as sunlight lights each drop fast, fast falling.” • Lines 13-14: “room / and”

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• Lines 14-15: “other / — calling” • Line 8: “darkly in love's green darkness”

• Lines 15-16: “shrewd / but”
• Lines 16-17: “years / of” CONSONANCE
• Lines 17-18: “afternoons / in”
The poem is filled with musical consonance that intensifies the
• Lines 19-20: “jauntiness / sinewed”
speaker's imagery and makes the poem feel all the more
• Lines 20-21: “strength / — suddenly”
emotional and moving.
• Lines 21-22: “quick / intensity”
• Lines 23-24: “fast / and” Take the /r/ sounds of "rrising of time's irr
rreverrsible riverr" in line
2, which add a sense of building momentum to this line about
REPETITION time's forward motion (the assonance of "riising" and "tiime"
adds to the effect, filling the line with rhythm).
The poem's repetitions help readers to share the speaker's
understanding of life's brevity and beauty. There's plenty more consonance to be found in this first stanza,
often appearing alongside more assonance and alliteralliteration
ation (as
Take a look at the diacope in line 4, for instance:
in "gli
glimpse" and "gli
glinting"). Lines 5-6 and are particularly
musical, with the repetition of liquid /l/ sounds, muffled /f/
in which I glimpse, minute by glinting minute
minute,
sounds, and hissing sibilance
sibilance, plus the assonant /aw/ sounds of
"all," "always," and "falling":
This repetition slows the poem down, especially as it coincides
with an end-stopped lineline. For a moment, it seems, the speaker
all that I have and all I am al
always losing
is able to see her life all at once, as if it were a sparkling
as sunlight lightss each drop fasst, fasst fall
falling.
waterfall.
The next line contains another instance of diacope, as the Those sounds seem to capture the rush and spray of falling
speaker catches sight of "all
all that [she has] and all [she is] always water itself. These richly musical sounds suggest the complex
losing." This time, diacope doesn't slow things down so much as rushing of the metaphorical waterfall of life itself, and capture
emphasize the profundity of the "glimpse" the speaker has the beauty and poignancy of the speaker's realization: life, like
gotten. She is acutely aware not only of all the parts of life she the course of a waterfall, is both stunning and brief. By evoking
values, but also of the fact that every single one of them will life's onrushing loveliness not just through imagery but through
soon be gone. She is confronting "all" of what it means to be music, the poem helps the reader to feel what the speaker is
human with gratitude and grace. experiencing at this moment.
Line 6 contains both polyptoton and epizeuxis
epizeuxis: Later, listen to all the consonance in line 10:

as sunlight lights each drop fast

fast, fast falling. moss
ss, crushed, gives out an
n ast
strin
ngent
nt sweetn
tness
ss

The repetition in this line has an almost domino-like effect: it The combination of sharp /t/ and /r/ consonance and softer /n/
seems the words are banging into each other, the first knocking and /s/ sounds evokes exactly what the speaker is describing
down the second and so on. This repetition emphasizes the here: the bittersweet smell and quietude of crushed plants
beauty, and the speed, of living. In this moment, the speaker beside still waters, and the bittersweetness of young love.
both sees her days lit up like individual jewels, and understands
that they go fast. Where Consonance appears in the poem:
Finally, there's the polyptoton in line 8, when the speaker
• Line 2: “rising,” “irreversible,” “river”
recalls a time when her beloved appeared to her "darkly
darkly in
• Line 3: “jewelled,” “waterfall”
love's green darkness
darkness." The repetition of the root word "dark"
• Line 4: “glimpse,” “glinting”
here draws attention to the shadowy mystery of youth. This
• Line 5: “all,” “all,” “always,” “losing”
darkness was lush and beautiful, but also bittersweet, filled
• Line 6: “sunlight,” “lights,” “fast,” “fast,” “falling”
with difficult lessons the speaker has no desire to relive.
• Line 7: “do,” “dream,” “you,” “young”
• Line 8: “might,” “come,” “darkly,” “love's,” “green,”
Where Repetition appears in the poem: “darkness”
• Line 4: “minute by glinting minute” • Line 9: “dust,” “bracken,” “spices”
• Line 5: “all that I have and all I am always losing” • Line 10: “moss,” “an,” “astringent,” “sweetness”
• Line 6: “fast, fast” • Line 11: “reflections”
• Line 12: “motionless”

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something pretty emotional here.
• Line 13: “enough,” “now,” “come,” “into,” “room” Meanwhile, in line 4, /gl/ alliteration ("gl
glimpse," "gl
glinting")
• Line 14: “find,” “kindness” emphasizes the relationship between life's beauty and its
• Line 15: “calling,” “love,” “shrewd” brevity: the speaker only barely catches sight of sparkling
• Line 16: “trustful,” “still,” “face,” “chastened,” “years” moments before they vanish.
• Line 17: “careful”
• Line 18: “conversation,” “nostalgia” And in line 6, the swift /f/ alliteration of "ffast, fast falling"
• Line 19: “jauntiness” imitates the speaker's realization that her life is quickly slipping
• Line 20: “sinewed,” “resolution,” “strength” past—an effect that reappears in the final line with the words
• Line 21: “suddenly,” “then” "ffalls fast."
• Line 22: “intensity,” “remembering”
• Line 23: “luminous,” “grand,” “falls,” “fast” Where Alliter
Alliteration
ation appears in the poem:
• Line 24: “only,” “once,” “pool,” “below”
• Line 1: “do,” “not,” “nor,” “delay”
• Line 4: “glimpse,” “glinting”
ASSONANCE • Line 5: “all,” “all,” “always”
Like consonance
consonance, assonance contributes to the poem's • Line 6: “fast,” “fast,” “falling”
musicality and rhythm. Assonance is particularly striking when • Line 7: “do,” “dream,” “you,” “young”
it is combined with consonance and/or alliter
alliteration
ation, such as in • Line 8: “darkly,” “darkness”
line 4: • Line 9: “dust”
• Line 20: “sinewed,” “strength”
in whiich I gliimpse, miinute by gliinting miinute, • Line 21: “suddenly”
• Line 23: “falls,” “fast”
Here, short /ih/ assonance combines with /n/ and /t/
consonance as well as /g/ alliteration to great effect: the IMAGERY
staccato sounds make every word feel distinct. In other words, The poem's imagery helps readers to share the speaker's
the sounds here help the reader to feel time slowing down, just emotional experiences.
as the speaker describes seeing each and every moment of her
Much of the imagery supports the poem's central metaphor of
life lit up before it falls into the river of time below.
life as a waterfall. For instance, the speaker's descriptions of a
"rising [...] river," a "jewelled [...] waterfall," and "sunlight" in the
Where Assonance appears in the poem: first stanza—and water falling into "the dark pool below" in the
• Line 1: “do,” “youth,” “nor,” “for” final stanza—all help to paint a vivid picture of life and time as
• Line 2: “rising,” “time's” an onrushing stream of sunlit water.
• Line 4: “in,” “which,” “glimpse,” “minute,” “glinting,” In the second stanza, meanwhile, the speaker imagines a
“minute” younger version of her beloved appearing to her in "love's
• Line 5: “all,” “all,” “always” green darkness." In this fertile-but-murky setting, olfactory (or
• Line 8: “come,” “love's” smell-based) imagery of "the dust of the bracken spic[ing] the
• Line 9: “dust” air" and "crushed" moss "giv[ing] out an astringent sweetness"
• Line 16: “face,” “chastened” helps readers to feel both the pleasures and dangers of young
• Line 20: “strength” love. Back when the speaker and her beloved first knew each
• Line 21: “suddenly,” “then” other, this imagery hints, things had to break in order to "spice[]
• Line 22: “intensity,” “remembering” the air" with their fragrance. This might suggest a relationship
that was both sensual and volatile!
ALLITERATION
But by the third stanza, things have changed. The speaker
Alliter
Alliteration
ation adds musicality and rhythm to the poem, just as describes her and her loved one's eyes as "shrewd / but trustful
consonance and assonance do. still" and their "face[s] chastened by years / of careful
In the first line, for example, /d/ and /n/ alliteration immediately judgement." There is no lush, metaphorical language here; the
heightens the language: imagery is straightforward and clear, just as the speaker's
relationship is now characterized by clarity and trust. Rather
I do not ask for youth, nor for delay than making love in a murky, mysterious wilderness, the couple
now "sit in the afternoons / in mild conversation." The
These stately alliterative sounds give the poem a feeling of difference in the imagery from stanza two to stanza three
gravity right off the bat: the speaker is clearly confronting shows just how much their relationship has changed.

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Chastened (Lines 16-17) - Subdued or humbled.
Where Imagery appears in the poem:
Jauntiness (Lines 19-20) - Cheerful liveliness or sprightliness.
• Lines 2-4
• Line 6 Sinewed (Lines 19-20) - Given strength. Sinews are the tissues
• Lines 7-12 that connect muscles to bones, and they're a common
• Lines 15-18 metaphor for toughness and endurance.
• Lines 22-24 Resolution (Lines 19-20) - Determination or resolve.
Luminous (Line 23) - Bright and shining; radiant.
METAPHOR
In the poem's central extended metaphor
metaphor, the speaker
compares her life to the "jewelled arc of the waterfall" crashing FORM, METER, & RHYME
into "the dark pool below." In other words, no matter how
brilliant and lovely a life is, nothing in the world can stop it from FORM
ending; time eventually takes its toll. Like a waterfall ending in a "Waterfall" is made up of four six-line stanzas, or sestets
sestets. It
"dark pool," life only "glint[s]" in the "sunlight" briefly before doesn't use a traditional form such as the sonnet or the
vanishing forever. This metaphor suggests that the speaker has villanelle
villanelle, but instead moves in a natural, fluid way that imitates
become sharply aware of how short her time really is. the water it describes.
The speaker later describes sunlight "light[ing] each drop" of This uniform stanza length gives the poem structure, while the
her life before it disappears into "time's irreversible river." By number of stanzas might suggest the four seasons—a common
using a river as a metaphor for time, the poem observes that image for the passage of time, one of this poem's major themes.
life flows relentlessly on, in one direction only. And the Many of the lines here are enjambed
enjambed, giving them an onward-
"sunlight" here suggests the illumination of the speaker's flowing movement that mimics the movement of the waterfall.
attention and understanding: she's really coming to terms with But each stanza concludes with an end-stopped line line, lending a
the movement of life, seeing all her days lit up one by one. sense of completion to each of the stages of life the speaker
In the second stanza, the speaker describes her beloved, in describes here.
younger days, appearing to her "in love's green darkness." By All of these formal choices reflect the speaker's central ideas:
comparing young love to both greenness and darkness, the time flows irreversibly onward, and everything comes to an end
speaker suggests freshness and vitality, but also mystery and someday. Although the speaker feels as if she is "always losing"
even pain. This "green darkness" might be fertile, but it's also the things that make her life beautiful and worthwhile in the
confused and perhaps deceptive: her memories of young love, flow of time, she sees this loss as a natural part of aging. She
in other words, are a mixed bag! doesn't expect to be able to hold onto any of it forever.
The poem's metaphors thus ground the speaker's complex
emotions in the physical world. Through images of falling water, METER
sunlight, and "green darkness," the speaker confronts both the The poem is written in free vverse
erse, meaning that it doesn't follow
beauty and the pain of love and mortality. any specific metrical pattern. The lines here have a natural,
free-flowing, conversational rhythm that mirrors the symbolic
Where Metaphor appears in the poem: waterfall the speaker describes.

• Lines 1-6 However, the poem does order its irregular lines in the same
• Lines 7-12 ways over and over; every stanza here is six lines long, for
• Lines 22-24 instance. This combination of fluid language and uniform
stanzas helps the poem's shape to match its subject. Just like
the waterfall of life, this poem feels both wild and bounded: life
doesn't go on forever, and even wild waters have limits.
VOCABULARY
RHYME SCHEME
Irreversible (Lines 1-2) - Not able to be changed or stopped.
"Waterfall" does not use a rh
rhyme
yme scheme
scheme. The lack of rhyme
Delay (Lines 1-2) - A slow-down or a postponement. helps the poem to feel straightforward and intimate; the
Bracken (Line 9) - A kind of large, coarse fern that grows in speaker doesn't sound like someone performing, but like
thickets. someone who is speaking directly and honestly to herself and
Astringent (Line 10) - Acidic or bitter. to the person that she loves.

Shrewd (Lines 15-16) - Astute, sharp, and intelligent. But the poem plays with sound in lots of other ways—especially

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through various forms of repetition
repetition, from alliter
alliteration
ation and specificity of this imagery might also suggest that the speaker's
consonance ("the rising of time's irr
rreversible riverr") to diacope symbolic setting is based on a real-life place, perhaps one she
and epizeuxis ("minute
minute by glinting minute
minute," "fast
fast, fast
fast"). and her beloved visited when they were young.)
These repetitions help the poem's language to feel elegant and The only purely physical setting in the poem appears in stanza
musical without sounding too formal, supporting the speaker's three, as the speaker describes coming into a room to find the
candid tone while also expressing deep feeling. person that she loves. There, they "sit in the afternoons / in
mild conversation, without nostalgia." This scene lacks the rich
sensuality of the speaker's remembered youth, but it makes up
SPEAKER for that loss in clarity and stability. This domestic setting
suggests that speaker is happy with the calm and certainty of
The speaker of "Waterfall" is aging and taking stock of her life.
her relationship now.
In particular, she's thinking over her relationship to someone
whom she has loved for a long time.
She doesn't long for youth or for the way things used to be; CONTEXT
while young love was beautiful in its own way, it was also
perhaps too innocent, based on the idea that the relationship LITERARY CONTEXT
would never change and love would never end. Older now, the Lauris Edmond (1924-2000) wrote poems from an early age
speaker understands that everything is subject to the passage but didn’t begin “writing seriously” until much later in life,
of time, even love—and she is grateful for the relationship that publishing her first collection at age 51. After that collection, In
she has with her beloved now, a relationship characterized by Middle Air (1975), her star rose rapidly; within 10 years, she had
kindness, trust, and unsentimentality. published six poetry collections and a novel and had been
The speaker still feels passionate love for her partner, but now awarded the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship, one of
her passion is born of the knowledge that love doesn't last New Zealand’s most prestigious literary awards.
forever: death will inevitably bring an end to this relationship. Edmond’s work is deeply personal, treating intimate subjects
Such knowledge makes her clutch life and love while they are like her crumbling marriage and her daughter’s suicide. She
still available to her. wove her poems into her two autobiographies, collapsing the
While the speaker of this poem doesn't need to be interpreted distance between her own voice and the voices of her speakers.
as Edmond herself, the boundary between Edmond and her Edmond avoided identifying with any one literary movement,
speakers is often fairly thin. For this reason, it's reasonable to preferring to treat each new poem as a distinct and
imagine that Edmond is writing in the first person and independent project. While many other New Zealand poets of
addressing her own husband in this poem. (This is also why this her time (such as Ian Wedde, Bill Manhire, and Elizabeth
guide has used female pronouns throughout; readers should Smither) were influenced by Modernism and Postmodernism
ostmodernism,
note that the speaker isn't actually gendered in the poem itself, experimenting with form and style, Edmond kept her language
and can be interpreted differently!) more conventional and approachable. Her poems use a calm
and expressive voice, filled with vulnerability, warmth, and
shrewd insight. It is perhaps partly for this reason that her work
SETTING was able to reach such a broad audience.
Most of the poem's setting is figurative; the action here takes Readers were also drawn to Edmond's depiction of everyday
place inside the speaker's thoughts. For example, when the experience. Her works compassionately examines common
speaker says that she "glimpse[s], minute by glinting minute, / subjects: love and relationships, death and aging, children and
all that [she] has and all [she is] always losing" in the "waterfall" grandchildren.
of her life, she's not describing an actual waterfall. Rather, she's
using the waterfall as a symbol of life and time: always flowing HISTORICAL CONTEXT
onward, and impossible to recover once it's gone. Like many women before her, Edmond (who came of age in the
Similarly, the speaker says that she doesn't "dream" that her early 1940s) gave up a career in favor of raising a family and
loved one will arrive "darkly in love's green darkness / where supporting her husband’s endeavors. It wasn’t until quite late in
the dust of the bracken spices the air," and where crushed moss her life that she returned to college to finish her studies—and
"gives out an astringent sweetness." This vivid setting is began organizing and rewriting the many poems she had
metaphorical
metaphorical, evoking the lushness, mystery, and occasional written in private.
pain of young love. In other words, young love was rich and The poet has attributed her success to a feminist awakening
sensual, but uncertain and sometimes bitter, too. (The that prompted her to realize the trap that she and so many

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 Get hundreds more LitCharts at www.litcharts.com
other women had fallen into. Had it not been for the “fortunate (http:/
(http://www
/www.landfallarchiv
.landfallarchive.org/omeka/items/show/
e.org/omeka/items/show/
[...] accident” of being alive in the 1970s and '80s, a period 26952)
when second-wave feminism inspired more and more women
• An Edmond Reading — Watch Edmond reading her poetry
to break with convention and seek fulfillment outside the home,
aloud. (https:/
(https:///tear
teara.go
a.govt.nz/en/video/47108/lauris-
vt.nz/en/video/47108/lauris-
it might never have occurred to her to publish her work. edmond-on-for-arts-sak
edmond-on-for-arts-sakee)
As Edmond's career took off, her marriage began to show
strains, and she and her husband Trevor divorced in the • Edmond's LLegacy
egacy — Read an obituary of the poet that talks
about her life and legacy. (https:/
(https://www
/www.theguardian.com/
.theguardian.com/
mid-1980s. But the two remained close until Trevor's death,
books/2000/mar/16/news.obituaries)
and Edmond felt lucky to have had the opportunity to live two
different lives—one as a wife and mother, the other as a • A Short Biogr
Biograph
aphyy — Learn more about Lauris Edmond in
successful writer. "Waterfall" reflects this sense of gratitude this biography from ReadNZ. (https:/
(https://www
/www.read-nz.org/
.read-nz.org/
and fulfillment in the speaker's appreciation for "all that [she] writer/edmond-lauris/ )
has and all [she is] always losing."

HOW T
TO
O CITE
MORE RESOUR
RESOURCES
CES
MLA
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Mottram, Darla. "Waterfall." LitCharts. LitCharts LLC, 13 Jul 2021.
• An Interview with Edmond — Read a 1982 interview with
Web. 22 Jul 2021.
Lauris Edmond in which she discusses her life and work.
(http:/
(http://www
/www.landfallarchiv
.landfallarchive.org/omeka/items/show/
e.org/omeka/items/show/ CHICAGO MANUAL
26942)
Mottram, Darla. "Waterfall." LitCharts LLC, July 13, 2021.
• Edmond's Reception — Read a 1985 review of Edmond's Retrieved July 22, 2021. https://www.litcharts.com/poetry/lauris-
Selected poems to learn more about how her work was edmond/waterfall.
received during her lifetime.

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