How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
the girl's glance of the aged mother
who sees her grown son a young father,
the mother's glance of the lonely girl
who sees her father a young son (233-236)
Family generations are a good way to represent time—parents must be older than their children. But here, the roles are inverted in a way that shows us how wild time is in "Piedra de sol."
Quote #5
Madrid, 1937 (276)
This line is important because it is one of the only pinned-down, specific moments in the whole poem. Think of it as a huge billboard with flashing lights and maybe even a siren that lets us know that something huge happened here. Because it's so short and so specific, it leaps out and forces you to pay attention.
Quote #6
impenetrable as conches, time lays siege
to them in vain, there is no more time, (318-319)
The lovers in the poem (while they are making love) escape time, and they're free from its march toward death. It seems that even the most romantic of us are mortals, but it doesn't hurt to give this theory a try.