Summary
The speaker describes how the clocks have been turned back an hour. This time change has robbed her of light. Now, she walks through part of town that she shouldn't be in, mourning a recent breakup. As she walks, rain falls, and she thinks obsessively about the mistakes made in her relationship.
Analysis
This poem is simple in form as well as in diction. It consists of quatrains, or four-line stanzas, and uses generally short lines with simple, conversational language. This creates readability and a feeling of casual closeness with the speaker. Moreover, it gives the impression that the speaker can express herself only in the most honest and unembellished terms: her heartbreak robs her of the ability to mince words or speak artfully. Perhaps most of all, this conversational tone offers a glimpse into the speaker's now-ended relationship. The poem is addressed to an unnamed person, clearly identifiable as the speaker's ex-partner. The speaker references "our love" and "our mistakes," suggesting a certain ongoing intimacy with this addressee. That intimacy is made more vivid by the speaker's tone, but it also becomes strange in the context of the speaker's heartbreak. Despite the fact that they have parted ways, the members of this relationship remain joined together by a shared past.
Although the speaker of this poem is depressed and the work's tone is somber, it is nevertheless full of the playfulness that characterizes much of this poet's work. That playfulness emerges in full force in the poem's title, which lends itself to multiple readings based on the various meanings of the word "mean." "Mean Time," first, can refer to Greenwich mean time—the time zone of the United Kingdom—and therefore to the mechanics of timekeeping, including the changing of the clocks in fall. At the same time, "mean time" can simply mean downtime or time between two events. In this way, it is a reminder of the speaker's feelings of anxious idleness: she feels time slipping away, but feels unsure how to spend the time she has correctly. Finally, "mean time" can be read as a description characterizing time itself as unkind. Certainly, the poem's speaker seems to feel that time itself is acting with ill intent, "stealing" light from her life. Time, in this sense, is a third character in the poem, interacting with the speaker and the addressee. In fact, because the speaker still identifies strongly with the addressee—feeling that they are suffering together—time is the poem's true antagonist.
This poem uses clipped, abrupt sounds, which illustrate the speaker's feeling that time has abruptly robbed her. The phrase "bleak streets" perfectly illustrates this strategy. It is spondaic, meaning that it consists of two syllables with the emphasis falling equally on both. It uses harsh consonant sounds, like B, T, and K, and assonant long E sounds. This creates a percussive, repetitive effect, mimicking the harsh relentlessness of the speaker's regrets. Meanwhile, when the speaker feels more nostalgic and tender, the poem shifts to softer sounds. The line "mourning our love" illustrates this: its long, melodic vowels and its soft L, M, and V consonants reveal that the speaker feels momentarily wistful.
