The Poplar Tree
In the lonely, dark landscape grows one single tree. Still, it's doing more than just growing. The poplar tree of line 41 works as a symbol for the woman's loneliness and desire for the man to retu...
Overgrown Nature
Moss, weeds, and unkempt bits of nature invade the farmhouse at every turn. Overgrown nature imagery is one clue that no one has attempted to make things nice around here in a long, long time. In t...
Night and Day
Night and day play huge roles in Mariana's life—and pretty similar ones, too. In the second stanza, Mariana cries while the morning dew sits on the grass: "Her tears fell ere the dews were dried"...
Noise
Think a dripping faucet is maddening? For Mariana, every noise is an annoyance and reminder of her despair. In the third stanza, a night bird wakes her up ("she heard the night-fowl crow") (26). Sh...
The Moat
Mariana sits in a house that's surrounded by a moat, waiting for a man to come rescue her—sound familiar? Well, Shmoopers, that's where the fairy-tale parallels end. In the epigraph, we find out...