Skunk Hour - Robert Lowell
I am pretty sure it's about loneliness, but maybe I'm projecting again.
Beyond that, I'm sensing a theme that the speaker wants to be with someone but can't. Here are some words that jump out at me:
- hermit
- fairy
- marry
- love-cars
- "Love, O careless Love"
- sob
- Church
I think he's afraid of growing old alone, like the hermit with the son and her "farmer" has. He refers to the millionaire "who seemed to leap from an L. L. Bean catalogue," perhaps indicating attractiveness, and "our fairy decorator" who would "rather marry" than find work for money. I thought perhaps "fairy" had some sort of ship imagery, but that's "ferry." The only definition of "fairy" aside from the floaty magical things is a derogatory word for homosexual males.
The next stanza refers to his watching for love-cars, and he says, "My mind's not right." I suspect the speaker is uncomfortable with his sexuality, which is why the lyrics, "Love, O careless love..." might make him "sob in each blood cell," and he perceives himself as hell. Not in hell. Just hell itself. Hell personified. His own hell, his own prison he can't escape. Alone but for the skunks marching alongside the Trinitarian Church--the structure he probably views as somewhat responsible for his loneliness.
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