Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In "Waiting," Robert Creeley encapsulates the essence of anticipation, futility, and existential questioning within a sparse and contemplative framework. The poem’s brevity belies the depth of its inquiry, as it explores the nature of waiting, time, and the repetitive patterns of human experience.

The poem opens with a direct question, “Were you counting the days,” which immediately places the reader in a state of self-reflection. The speaker addresses someone—possibly the reader or even himself—about the act of waiting and counting time. This image of “counting the days” invokes a common human behavior, a universal ritual of anticipation, whether it’s for an event, an outcome, or simply the passage of time. The phrasing implies that this waiting is both intentional and almost methodical, as if the individual were marking off days on a calendar, moving incrementally toward a specific endpoint.

However, the poem’s tone shifts in the subsequent line, “from now till then / to what end,” which questions the purpose of this waiting. The phrase “to what end” challenges the necessity or value of counting days, hinting that there may be an underlying pointlessness to it. Creeley invites the reader to consider the objective behind their waiting, encouraging introspection about whether the endpoint—this “then”—truly holds any significance, or if the anticipation itself has become a hollow routine. The lack of punctuation here flows seamlessly into the next line, reinforcing the continuous and often unexamined nature of such actions.

The poem then moves to a more philosophical plane with “what to discover, / which wasn’t known.” Here, Creeley suggests that whatever is awaited may not contain any new revelation. Instead, it could be a repetition of previous experiences or knowledge, something “known / over and over.” This line emphasizes the cyclical nature of human experience, where the things we anticipate often turn out to be variations of what we have already encountered. By describing it as “over and over,” Creeley points to a sense of monotony or redundancy in life’s events, hinting that the meaning we seek in future moments may be illusory, as those moments may simply mirror what has come before.

The sparseness of the language and the absence of specific details give the poem a universal quality. Creeley doesn’t specify what is being waited for, allowing the reader to project their own experiences of waiting onto the poem. This open-endedness suggests that the act of waiting itself, rather than any particular object or event, is the focus of Creeley’s meditation. It is the universal human condition of existing in time, of moving from one moment to the next, hoping for something different yet encountering the familiar.

“Waiting” ultimately questions whether the time spent anticipating future events is justified or if it only leads to a recognition of life’s repetitiveness. Creeley’s choice to leave the poem unresolved reinforces this theme; he offers no answers, only the implication that such existential musings are part of the experience of being human. The simplicity of the poem’s structure mirrors the simplicity of the insight it offers: life is often a sequence of similar experiences, and the time we spend waiting for something new may merely bring us back to what we already know. In this way, the poem serves as a quiet reflection on the cyclical, sometimes futile nature of human existence, encouraging us to question whether waiting truly holds value or if, perhaps, the meaning lies in accepting each moment as it is.

Copyright (c) 2025 PoetryExplorer

Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!

Other Poems of Interest...