The poem portrays a man mourning upon a perfect girl he will never see again. The opening lines introduce the girl he “met the other day” (2) and first describes her as the “girl with the shining legs” when he sees her in the subway (3). He realizes that “she goes her way And I go mine” knowing they will never meet again (4,5). Knowing this, he feels “sad though I don’t know why” (6). This thought carries on in his mind and describes an escalator carrying her away as “a river--a flower to the sea”(8). He stands there “crucified to families duties” (9) and “transfixed” (10) at his inability to go after her.
The sonnet depicts Robert Frost’s views on the creation of life. The opening line explains Robert Frosts first observation of a “white” and “dimpled” spider sitting on a “white” plant and holding up a “white” moth it is about to eat (1,2,3). He explains that they are all there “mixed” together and placed purposefully (5). He then questions the state of the spider for “being white” and why another force changed it from being “wayside blue”(9,10). He asks what “brought” and “steered” the spider and moth together at this point in the night (11,12). He finally ends the poem asking what could’ve caused this “design of darkness” other than a supernatural designer but then reassures himself that it could have just been a coincidence (13).