The Pier-Glass

"The Pier-Glass" by Robert Graves is a collection of poems that expresses deep feelings about what it means to be a person living in the world. The collection gracefully puts together different ideas, like how we feel, the beauty of nature, and thinking about what comes before and what is now gone. Graves uses a special style of writing, mixing his own life stories with big questions about life itself. Poems talk about important stuff like love, holding onto memories, and how life can be confusing; for instance, the poem "The Pier-Glass" uses a broken mirror as a symbol to show sad and thoughtful feelings about who we are. While some poems joyfully highlight the awesome change that love brings among old hurts ("The Finding of Love"), others show sad feelings of great loss and wanting ("Lost Love"). The collection is like a picture of life itself, showing both the happiness and the sadness, how time flies, and how we remember things.