love poem analysis - Emily Cashman

The poem I read was "Weighing the Dog" by Billy Collins. This love poem starts off with a dog as the subject matter, but by the end of the poem, a shift takes place and the speaker is no longer talking just about his love for a dog, but about something deeper. By then end of the poem, the speaker is discussing a break up with a past significant other and how that has affected him. The last three lines and specifically the closing line "and now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhoods." is talking about how the two people have separated and are now on different paths in life. Throughout the poem, there is an awkward, almost uncomfortable, tone being used to describe the actual act of weighing a dog and also the break-up between the two people. The poem doesn't have any sort of rhyme scheme and this contributes to the slightly awkward and uncomfortable nature of the poem. I think this tone was used to show how nothing in life is really smooth and with bumps or awkwardness, and that is an idea I agree with.