Wait

Kinnell uses the motif of time and proper timing in arguing for the listener to embrace living their whole life. The title itself implies that it is not yet time, in this case, for life to end; this motif recurs throughout the poem. The speaker’s plea that the listener “trust the hours” (Line 3) first centers the importance of time in the poem, and the repetition of “will become interesting” (Lines 6-8) solidifies focus on a future time when love will renew. This motif also extends to the images Kinnell uses: In the first stanza, the surprise of something occurring at the wrong time, such as “Buds that open out of season” (Line 8) symbolizes the possibility of love unexpectedly returning to the listener’s life.

As the poem concludes, the motif of time evolves beyond a plea to wait for love to one urging the listener to stay to hear their whole life play out. The speaker says, “don’t go too early” (Line 17), asserting there is inevitably more life to live, and more experiences (good and bad) to have, and suicide would cut that short. The speaker urges of the music of those experiences, “Be there to hear it, it will be the only time, / most of all to hear your whole existence, / rehearsed by the sorrows, play itself into total exhaustion” (Lines 24-26).