while we are putting on our shoes or making a sandwich
-- Speaker (Line 2)

Importance: This line is used to create a sense of mundane banality among the extranatural ideas of the spirits of the dead. Characteristic of Collins’ work, this poem is grounded in the small details of the everyday. Putting on shoes or making a sandwich (or a quick lunch of some sort) is a practice most middle-class readers can identify with, which makes the broader and more thought-provoking themes more resonant and accessible.

drugged perhaps by the hum of a warm afternoon, / they think we are looking back at them
-- Speaker (Lines 7-8)

Importance: This point in the poem marks a turning point from the everyday to a more heightened connection with those passed. A subtle keyword in this moment is “drugged,” which normally has a negative connotation and suggests a shift in consciousness. Here, it is being used to portray the seductiveness of halcyon...