Can someone please help me understand this poem?

The Old Woman

~Iain Crichton Smith



Tonight she is sitting by a window

and the street is a Bible under her gaze.

The curtains have received many washings.

There is a glitter from the flowered floor.



The world was once without shape

men and women like a red fever

moving about flesh and mind,

nostrils tasting love and rage.



Moon and sun in the sky,

hand like a salmon leaping to hand,

the fish of the world in a net,

pain that would not let the heart rest.



And everything was put in order,

table in its place, chair in its place,

this room is the mirror of her thoughts,

armoury from which no growing music will come.



For the music that will harmonise it

is youth itself that will never return.

Her eye is sweeping the streets.

Time is crouching in the window.





Can someone please help me understand this poem? There is an English exit exam tomorrow, and this is one of the poems we will need to understand for it. Thanks so much in advance for your time!

Can someone please help me understand this poem?
It's about an old woman thinking about and missing her youth. The street being a Bible under her gaze means she probably sits at the window and looks at the street for hours, like some people would read their Bibles. The world was once without shape and that whole stanza as well as the one after it is her youth. She once was young and felt love, and rage, and pain, and leaping. The fourth stanza means in her past everything is in order, like the furniture in the room, but now the room is just an empty echo of her thoughts, and there is no music coming from it. Because the music is youth (as is explained in the last stanza) that will never return. And poetry doesn't have to rhyme, most of it doesn't! It has more to do with the images the poem can create in the reader's mind. And this is a very good one.
Reply:I think it means that the woman is remembering what it was like in her youth when she was busy with life, but then she got old and everything slowed down and she did too. So now she just watches.
Reply:I think the poet is speaking about a woman who has gained maturity with the years and no longer suffers the 'love and rage', and the emotional pain of her younger years. She has made peace with herself and the world, the street is a Bible, because she has known it so long and familiarly. As people get older they grow out of the frantic emotions of their younger days, like the curtains that have received many washings. She has become more stable and orderly with the years and she can watch the world pass outside her window with the perspective of one who has lived through troubles and triumphs and learned that all things pass.
Reply:I can try to help break some of it down. It sounds like in the first stanza when it says that the street is a Bible under her gaze, I take that as saying that it is a mystery to her because the Bible is a mystery in a way.

Then when you get to the third and fourth stanzas when it talks about Moon and Sun in the sky etc., it is saying that things used to be in their place where they belonged.

Now when it says the room is the mirror of ther thoughts, well the room is in order and everything is in its place. So if the room is a reflection of her thoughts then in her mind everything has its place.

That is about as far as I can get with it but I hope I helped somewhat.
Reply:It sounds like she is waiting for someone (maybe an old lover from when she was younger?). Or maybe she is just reminiscing about her youth and the men that she loved, and all the time she spent in her past in the same spot waiting for those men. Good luck on your test!
Reply:Beautiful and sad.

Woman in the second half of her life dreaming out her window contemplating life. She gazes out and everything outside of and in her home become metaphores for how she sees life.
Reply:This is just my interpretation. I usually have a different view then most people! The beauty of poetry is, writer and reader don't always have the same interpretation.

I think this is describing an old woman, who is about ready to die. She more then likely lived a life as a prostitute, thus the reference to the street. The curtains refer to how dirty her life was and even though she no longer lives that life she can never can get the dirty feeling to leave her. The middle verses of the poem describe her thoughts, concerning love and lust in her younger years. She never found true love and so she'll never know the music of a baby's cry. She is alone waiting for death to come.
Reply:today night the woman was sitting by the window

as she looked at the street, it looked like the holy streets of bethlehem

the curtains after washed r looking neat

and the floor is soo clean tht it glitters

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one our earth, b4 the continenetal drift ;doesnot possess any shape without any life on it

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{{salmon is a beautiful fish in golden color}}

the sun and moon looks like tht salmon in the hands of sky

it suffers a pain like the trapped fish in a net struggling to escape to save his life

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everything was set in order all the things wer in itz place

but the woman still gazing at the streets remembering her memories.........(thoughts)

she was trying to memorize her YOUTH wich wud never ever *** back to her.

she was remembering her days wen she passed away the streets the wonder, the beauty oh

the poet says she was sweeping the streets by her eyes wich means ------- she was not missing her sight frm --- the streets

her sight cleared away all the dirt in it ...........................................

BY THIS WE CAN UNDERSTAND THT THE POET WANTS TO TELL HOW BAD SOMEONE FEEL WEN THEY THINK THT THE THING GONE IS GONE AND WILL NEVER EVER *** BACK TO US ...........................................
Reply:She is remembering when she was young and passionate. When it says "pain that would not let her heart rest" I think it means she went through some kind of hardship in her life. Now that she is old, the chaotic life she once had has come to an end. The room she is in contains things that remind her of her life. She sits at the window. "Time is crouching at the window" meaning her "time" is growing near.
Reply:nope ...
Reply:I don't get it... it doesn't even rhyme.
Reply:it seems like she is observing sins and that she is afraid to or has been involved in them so she stays away and distances herself from the world so she wont sin or get hurt as well as u may want to google search the author alot of the time u can find the poem then what the poem is suppose to represent
Reply:There once was a man from Nantucket...................
Reply:It is showing the old woman reminiscing on her life.