Can anyone help me to understand the poem “Winter Saturday” by Earle Birney”?
Awesome. As for the caterpillar image, the poet first describes them as furry (like caterpillars often are) when they emerge. It likely refers to their winter clothing. The farmhouse would be a kind of protective egg they hatch from, I suppose. Caterpillars soon cocoon themselves, and that’s what each of the farmers do as they climb into their hard-shelled vehicles. They have a dreamy sort of voyage to another state of life (a kind of metamorphosis to the adult scene (moth). Headlights are compared to sensory organs like antennae. Their emergence from their vehicles is compared to the breaking open of the chrysalis that lets out the adult moth. Moths are the adult, reproductive stage that dance about through the air, going on a haphazard flight around flowers and such. This implies that the farmers are looking to score! The farmers apparently move in a similar fashion around the faces of others as they encounter other people and talk with them. Moths used to flutter to some movies (esp
