The child
The life that his child was unable to live haunts the poet. It becomes a symbol all its own (explored most directly in "Majority"). In contrast to this ghost, he sees the realm around him. When he sees children being raised by parents, he views the imagery through the lens of his loss. Broadly, the child's loss becomes a symbol for loss itself, and for death, specifically for the untimely nature of human death and the sublime sense of "wrongness" that death entails, because a child dying young seems especially "wrong."
The motif of middle time
In the title, the word Noon refers to the middle passage of time in a day, but in the life of the poet, it is a signal of his own arrival in middle-age. He sees that he has reached the midpoint of a human life, and so his awareness of the end of life becomes a serious consideration. The title "Summer Storm" doubles the "middle time" motif, and various images and symbols also evoke the sense of "in-between-ness."
Adulthood as a symbol
One might consider these poems to be an expression of adulthood, because a child's life is paired with innocence in these poems, so the painfully experienced point of view in these poems is a reference to adulthood. But, then again, adulthood is offered as the symbolic prize of childhood. Therefore, adult life is presented in the poetry as a complex symbol. On the one hand, an adult has access to incredibly sophisticated ideas and emotions, which are beautiful (even poetic), but they suffer more than a child could imagine. Still, in "Majority," the poet wishes his child could have become an adult.
Paradise lost
Through motif, the poet reflects on the idea of paradise lost. The motif is a reference to the fall of man sequence from the ancient folklore of Genesis, the story of Adam and Eve attaining the godly knowledge between good and evil, only to be expelled into a fallen world. The symbol is primary in "The Lost Garden," but it is also the religious folklore responsible for the introduction of death, so "Litany" also includes references to judgment, death, and the strange ineffability of human experience.
Language as a motif
The poet includes a thorough treatment of language itself, especially in "The Next Poem," "Unsaid," and "Words," which all portray language as a tool through which the poet can make meaning for themselves from their experiences. The use of words to define the nature of words adds a meta-narrative quality that is fully expressed in "The Next Poem," which is a poem about writing poems.
