Key Quotes

• The title "Afternoons" suggests the end of the day and time passing.
• The tone is wistful and the poem has a sense of longing for the past - "summer is fading".
• The language suggests there is little meaning in the lives of the "young mothers" - "hollow" and "assemble" suggest routine and boredom creating a sense of emptiness.
• The idea of time passing is developed throughout the poem - "their beauty has thickened" suggests aging.
• "To the side of their own lives" echoes the idea of "setting free their children" from the first stanza. There is the implication that their lives are rules by their children who "expect to be taken home".