Today

Though it does not explicitly identify a single place, “Today” paints a strong domestic image of a house and a garden. The overall effect is a strong sense of home, safety, and predictability. Though the safety and predictability are at times tenuous given the alarming images of violence to inanimate objects, the overarching impression is that the speaker is at home and that the beauty of the spring day has rejuvenated their sense of joy in their surroundings, which is a relief after being stuck there through the winter. To be reminded that the spring follows the winter and that the snow-covered ground outside the windows will once again erupt into the warmth and color of a garden filled with peonies sends the speaker into fits of barely-controllable pleasure. This grounding in place of the poem helps convey its meaning since the reader can understand how a favorable change in monotonous surroundings would be welcome indeed. It also helps to highlight the irony and surprise Collins employs in the poem by setting a simple and familiar scene within which these flashes of small aggressions become exaggerated to seem like the behavior of a wild person.