I See the Boys of Summer

Across the striking images and wording of the poem’s nine stanzas, particular emphasis is given to human beings’ power to both destroy and create. The opening stanzas of the first section depict boys moving through life and depleting resources. The boys drown, curdle, and sour, and they embrace negativity: “Of doubt and dark they feed their nerves; / The signal moon is zero in their voids” (11-12). Everywhere they go, the boys’ actions have a negative impact on their surroundings, casting them as forces of destruction. At the end of the section, the narrator foresees the boys will continue this trajectory, growing into meaningless men: “I see that from these boys shall men of nothing / Stature by seedy shifting, / Or lame the air with leaping from its heats;” (19-21). The boys will become unsteady men. They will worsen their surroundings, “lame” the air, as they always have. In the ninth stanza, Thomas reiterates the destruction that boys and men bring: “I see you boys of summer in your ruin. / Man in his maggot’s barren” (49-50). Repeatedly, Thomas associates humans, particularly males, with harsh verbs and negative images. As the boys grow, their journey leads them to ruin.