Four Poems for Robin

Falling in love for the first time can be a surge of emotion. For Robin and the speaker, they were “the youngest lovers” (Line 9). The relationship is depicted as a primarily happy, if brief, one. The speaker recalls “sleeping together in a big warm bed” (Line 8) and notes, “We had what the others / All crave and seek for” (Lines 62-63). However, the couple “left it behind” (Line 64). Robin’s notation that they’d be together “[a]gain someday, maybe ten years” (Line 45) suggests she might have felt too young for a commitment while the speaker, “obsessed with a plan” (Line 48), was driven to pursue another agenda. While it’s clear neither is completely to blame, the speaker can’t help but wonder what might have been had they stayed together or gotten back together. Did they make a mistake? It’s an unanswerable question because neither is the same person they were. It is only the ghost of young Robin that haunts the speaker throughout the “ten years and more” (Line 49), not the obviously still alive Robin who “teach[es] school back east” (Line 12). This indicates how a first love might be an illusion that has nothing to do with actual experience.