afternoons

• "summer is fading the leaves fall in ones and twos"


  summer mirros people lifes

  fading implies it is gradual and unnoticeable

  makes chnage seem irregular and uncontrolable
• "young mothers assemble"

  implies gender role as a mother

  sibilance -> repetition, routine

  referred to as "them" later on this is unspecific implying they have no individuality
• "husbands in skilled trades"


  they're working class

  shows gender role
• "estateful"


  dismissive

  groups working class together
• "our wedding lying near the television"


  our wedding-> in italics to make the reader sound patronizing

  has been disregarded and replaces by technology
• "the wind is ruining their courting places"


  their opportunities are being taken away by the wind (something they can't control) this could be a metaphor for time

  courting places is repeated in the second and third stanza to show that even though time changes and the lovers change they follow the same pattern
• "behind them" and "before them 


  separation between men and women and their previous identities as lovers