Wind (symbol)
The wind is featured in every stanza, and seems to function as a symbol of forces that are powerful, but elusive and invisible. Such a force could be the intensity of nostalgia—feelings that literally stop someone in his or her tracks, but are still hard to place. Another possibility is that the wind symbolizes the forces of nature and time, which relentlessly affect the subject, and yet, cannot be entirely comprehended or captured. Just like you can't tame the wind or put it in a box and study it, we can never stop time, nor fully understand its effect on us.
Dying leaves (symbol)
The symbol of dying or dead leaves occurs twice in the poem, and could symbolize several elements of experience. One is mortality, as the passing time will not only cause cycles of decay in nature, but will eventually claim the life of the subject. Another possibility is the death of cognizance or clarity, in that we cannot possibly retain every memory, or experience complete understanding. In this case, it is not death that claims the subject, but the unconscious powers of repression and forgetting.
Grey clouds (symbol)
The speaker writes that the subject of the poem will have thoughts that “like the grey clouds change.” As we learn later in the poem, these thoughts are nostalgic, and thus bittersweet—containing both “sweetness” and loss. Perhaps grey clouds are an apt simile for such thoughts, because they are not light or dark, but grey—somewhere in the middle. Much like the subject’s eyes that are brimming with tears, grey clouds are often full of water, poised to release rain. Even further, clouds themselves appear substantive and expansive, but upon inspection are almost immaterial or impalpable. This quality of clouds aligns with the speaker's vague sense of his past experience that cannot quite be recovered or reached.
Eyes (motif)
Eyes in this poem may go unnoticed, but they serve an important, subtle purpose. In one stanza, tears come to the subject’s eyes when his encounter with the outside world probes an internal constellation or memory. At the end of the poem, the subject chooses to close his eyes so he can focus more intently on his internal life, making a concerted effort to recollect his experience. Perhaps the eyes here function as the intermediary or mediating apparatus between the outer and inner worlds—not just in a literal way, but in an metaphorical way. For the subject, it seems that nature and time move around him externally, outside of his control. Internally, though he’s constituted by these forces, a whole universe awaits observation.
Standing (motif)
Perhaps the fact that the poem's subject continues to stand still as the wave of nostalgia hits, represents his ability to (with)stand very complex and powerful forces both internally and externally. The standing subject is an alive entity that desire, tries, and carries on. He attempts to remember, even though the traces of the memory are so intense, and he knows that he may not succeed. He stands as a symbol of all people who, despite the often unbearable conditions and limitations of life, continue to embrace pleasure and pain—hoping somehow to make sense of their subjectivity.
