The voice of the clocks comes straight after the voice of the two lovers. This is done purposely by Auden to stress the contrast between the two views. The lovers view love as timeless and never ending, however the clocks see it differently. They believe that love in fact is endless, as time will catch up with them at some point. Time is personified through the poem in many of the stanzas; time is often referred to as ‘his’.The capitalisation of words such as ‘Time’ and ‘Justice’ are treated as names, therefore personifying the concepts in the line “And time will have his fancy” this line also shows how casual time is, and how it doesn’t care about the problems which humanity has, time does what it wants when it wants and when it suits it.
Time is depicted as being something that lurks in the shadows “time watches from the shadows” and something that creeps up on you when you least expect, and even interrupts couples and lovers when they are at their most intimate times “And coughs when they would kiss” this line also again, personifies time.Into many a green valley, Drifts the appalling snow” the first part of this quote represents the beginning of love, before time has interrupted. The word ‘green’ has connotations of summer or spring, the time of year when new things begin to come to life, just like when love begins to blossom. However over time the green valley is taken over by the ‘Appalling snow’ killing all the plants which have blossomed in the summer, time takes its toll on the valley. This is a metaphor for love, love starts of wonderfully, new and fresh.
However as time drifts in and begins to interrupt the love slowly begins to fade and change. The word ‘drifts’ again suggests that time sneaks up on unsuspecting people. The line “The glacier knocks in the cupboard, the desert sighs in the bed” suggests how intrusive of personal space time can be. The words ‘cupboard’ and ‘bed’ suggests things that would normally be found in a home, meaning therefore time can get where most people can’t.
“Desert sighs in the bed” shows that passion between the two lovers has faded. This stanza links to the next stanza about nursery rhymes.Children are often scared about monster being under the bed or in the cupboard, which links to the next stanza where we learn that clocks believe that love creates a loss of innocence. A nursery rhyme often has many connotations of innocence.
However, when taken out of context we see how they can be sexually twisted, for example “and the giant enchanting jack” taken out of context could suggest that jack has some kind of attraction to the giant, much as “Jill goes down on her back” could suggests Jill’s promiscuity.
