How we cite our quotes: (line)
Quote #1
Like a vessel at the launch
When its last restraint is gone. (85-86)
Laura is compared to a ship after all the lines have been drawn in and the anchor is up. She seems to have completely lost her self-"restraint." No more inhibitions. It's time to go for some goblin fruit.
Quote #2
She sucked and sucked and sucked the more
Fruits which that unknown orchard bore;
She sucked until her lips were sore. (134-136)
These lines hardly need our commentary – they're like fruit porn.
Quote #3
"Do you not remember Jeanie,
How she met them in the moonlight,
Took their gifts both choice and many,
Ate their fruits and wore their flowers
Plucked from bowers
Where summer ripens at all hours?" (147-152)
Jeanie is used as a cautionary tale in this poem – an example of what happens to women who eat the fruit but don't have a sister to redeem them. The word "bowers" here could have a double meaning, since "bower" can mean both a shady part of a garden and a woman's dressing room. And "plucking flowers" from a woman's private dressing room sounds an awful lot like a metaphor for sex.