H.D. "Mid-day".

Summary and Analysis

The setting and the tone of the poem give the impression of a desert, a literal as well as a figurative waste land. The speaker is torn by her thoughts and she feels scattered like the seeds on the path. Her thoughts are feverish like the hot sun above her head. She says she is defeated.

This dreary image is contrasted by a fresh image of a poplar on the hill. She pays tribute to the great poplar which she seems to perceive as a lighthouse while she is on the open sea. In the same sentence she says she is perishing "among the crevices of the rocks".