The first two lines of the second stanza have a repetition of the word “they” as the first word of each line. This repetition is used to create a rhythm and to describe the routine of the man and woman meeting in cafes and the woman always being early. “They met in cafes. She was always early. / He was late. That evening he was later. / They wrapped the fan. He looked at his watch.” The syntax of this quotation produces a tone that is frantic because the sentences are short and the reader tends to read that part of the poem fast, and with a jerk at the middle of each line. The tension in this stanza is enhanced because the man in the poem is later than usual. Bollard repeats “they” for the third time in the third stanza in the last line in order to emphasise the togetherness of the couple. He ends the second stanza by referring to the man looking at his watch in order to refer to the elapse of time so that he can continue in the next stanza at a later stage in time. The reference to the man looking at the watch could also relate to him being late for something; which creates a hurried tone in the reader’s mind.
In the third stanza, the hurried and frustrated tone is preserved by the short sentences in the second and third line. The quotation, “She ordered more coffee. She stood up. / The streets were emptying” reflects on the emptiness of the woman’s surrounding after her man left. It could also be interpreted as emptiness of the woman internally represented through the emptying streets of Paris. The poet maintains the tension by continuing, “The heat was killing. / She thought the distance smelled of rain and lightening.” This quotation conveys the physical discomfort of the woman by using the metaphor, “The heat was killing” and follows it by introducing the approach of “rain and lightening” using weather imagery to indicate a dreadful event that is about to occur; which creates more discomfort in the reader’s mind. This line also correlates to the last line of the first stanza to emphasise and maintain the tension. All three stanzas till now are written in the past tense in a third person’s narrative voice, which helps the reader understand the plot and setting with ease.
The first two lines of the fourth stanza describe the image of the lace in a detailed manner but also mention the diction “reticent” in the third line. In this context it could mean that the silk lace has personal and sentimental values to the woman. This is expressed by the quote, “The rest is tortoiseshell and has the reticent, / clear patience of its element.” Right after this sentence another sentence starts that runs-on to the following paragraph (enjambment) so that there is a link from the fourth stanza to the fifth stanza without interruption since the fifth stanza continues to talk about the same piece of cloth’s condition at present time.
The fifth stanza mainly talks about the condition of the lace. The lace is compared by the weather through the use of a simile, “The lace is overcast as if the weather / it opened for and offset had entered it.” This quotation basically describes the fading colour of the lace like that of the covering of the sky with a mist of clouds. The use of weather imagery in this stanza contradicts the use of weather imagery in the previous stanzas since the tone of this part of the poem is more relaxed for the reader, as the it is only describing the state of the lace.
The following stanza correlates to the third line of the third stanza because the theme of emptiness and hollowness occurs again through the subsequent quotation, “The past is an empty café terrace. / An airless dusk before thunder.” Again, this expresses the loneliness or the absence of the man in the woman’s life. However, this stanza is written in the present tense reflecting the past, so it is not necessarily interpreted that the woman living a lonely life at that moment in time by the reader. The stanza continues with the quote, “A man running. / And no way now to know what happened then - / none at all – unless, of course, you improvise:” These three lines express that the man was lost and was unheard of, though what happens to the man next is left to the reader’s imagination.
The last stanza completely changes subject and describes the actions of a blackbird in a summer morning. The weather once again is a factor in this poem and the climatic conditions are described using the diction “sultry” and “heat”. The last sentence, “Suddenly she puts out her wing – the whole flirtatious span of it” is a personification that is used to express the symbolism of the black lace fan.
Finally, this poem reflects upon the story of a loving couple and the significance of the black lace, in the woman’s life, who loses her man. The poem is expressed by the use of weather imagery, the changing of tenses from past to present, and also the use of literary features such as metaphors, simile, personification and repetition.
