Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Is the speaker alone, or with someone else? Why would this matter to how you read the poem?
- Who is the "love" that the speaker references in the first line of stanza 3?
- Do you think the poem takes place at sunrise or at sunset? Why might that matter?
- Why do you think the speaker imagines that the bugle horns he hears are out of "Elfland" (line 10)? Why does he bring up fairy tales and old myths?
- The word "echoes" seems to mean two different things by the end of the poem: the literal "echoes" of the bugle, and the figurative "echoes," or memories, that a person leaves behind.
- What kind of "echoes" do you think you'll leave behind you?