o The speaker declares that they made the moon appear to reverse its rising course in the sky and move behind the hills next to the road. The speaker drove east along the road for so long and at such a high speed that it felt as though time itself stopped.
The stars looked like a swirling cluster of insects behind the trees, but the speaker drove as fast as those stars. The speaker states they had the potential to control the movement of the sun and, therefore, to make the night became day once again (i.e., by making the sun rise once again).
The speaker compares the darkness of the night to a long black carpet being unfurled behind the wheels of the speaker's car and across the rest of the landscape. However, everything in front of the speaker was still sunlit.
The speaker kept driving, making the fence-posts that lined the road appear to swiftly swing along the electrical wires between them. The speed at which the posts rushed by reminded the speaker of days that end too quickly. Passing by the tall telephone poles that hovered over the road reminded the speaker of the way that years slide away into the past.
As the speaker drove, all the forces and objects around them—light, motion, the sky, the road, time, and life itself—combined into a single, unified entity. Meanwhile, the speaker continued to drive urgently through the night in the direction of the sunrise.
“The Road” Themes
Life, Death, and Time “The Road” illustrates the exhilaration of speeding down a road towards the sunrise. Straddling the border between night and day, the speaker feels a sense of control over the heavens; it’s as though, in speeding as “fast as” the stars above, they’ve made “time itself [stand] still.” The speaker seems all too aware that this thrilling power is illusory, however—that moments continue to slip too quickly "into the past" as the speaker drives down this road because "life and time" are "one." Neither can exist without the other, the speaker ultimately implies, because to live is also to move forward.
Driving down a dark road seems to grant the speaker power over the movement of the moon, stars, and sun. The speaker imagines making “the rising moon go back / behind the shouldering hill” and states that they “could have made the sun arise / and night turn back to day.” In controlling the skies, it appears as though the speaker is making the earth’s spinning—and thus the passage of time—stop or even reverse itself. Holding back the darkness of the night also suggests, on a symbolic level, that the speaker is holding back death itself.
Of course, this is really just a trick of perspective. In reality, the speaker is still moving forward both through both space and time, as the "telephone poles" and "fence-posts" along the road remind them. Because these objects are planted in place, it looks like they're being whisked backward as the speaker drives ahead, and they remind the speaker of the fact that "days" and "years" continue to slip through their fingers with every passing moment.
And yet, the speaker also says that “life and time” are “one,” meaning that, paradoxically, they can’t keep living without also accepting the passage of time (and thus the approach of death). While a human life may feel fleeting, always “fly[ing]” by “too fast,” the speaker seems to take comfort in the idea that being alive—rushing down the metaphorical road of life towards the light of a new dawn—means embracing one's place within the natural rhythms of the universe.
The Power of Hope
“The Road” is more than a poem about the thrill of an early morning (or late night) drive. Roads often symbolize life itself, while the night and darkness typically symbolize death, despair, and the unknown. As such, driving away from the dark night and “towards the sun” can be read as an extended metaphor for the speaker's attempt to outrun their own negative emotions (and perhaps even their own mortality). The “long black carpet” of night might always be right on the speaker’s heels, but the speaker’s determination to drive towards the light suggests the enduring power of hope in the face of looming darkness.
Throughout the poem, the speaker urgently attempts to avoid the night. They make the “rising moon go back” and only travel towards the brightness of the sun. The speaker moves with boldness and perhaps even franticness, “rac[ing],” rushing, and speeding down the road.
The night itself, meanwhile, comes across as distinctly threatening in the poem. The speaker says the stars “swarmed,” for example, as though they were a cluster of bugs in the sky. Calling the night a “long black carpet” that unrolls right "behind the wheels" of the speaker's car is another ominous image. It further suggests that the speaker isn’t just out for a joyride but trying to outrun negative emotions and perhaps even escape the reality of death.
The poem doesn't focus on this darkness for long, however, and ends with the triumphant image of the speaker driving toward the sun. As light is often a symbol of life, hope, and joy, this closing imagery suggests the speaker has not lost their determination to live and seek joy with whatever time they have. Where this theme appears in the poem Lines 1-20 The poem begins with epic pronouncements from the narrator, including the claim that they mastered the moon and controlled the passage of time. It quickly becomes apparent that the narrator is moving at great speed and that it is the distorted view of their surroundings through the windows and windscreen that are creating these sensations of control.
The poem continues to depict the narrator’s journey and establishes
a dichotomy between the darkness they are leaving behind and the light before them. This emphasizes the fact that, like all journeys, this drive is a temporal voyage as well as a geographical one. The poem ends by reaffirming the narrator’s final goal, the sun, and reminds the reader that the journey is never complete, as the narrator is chasing something that is perpetually beyond their reach.
Context The poem is taken from Fotheringham Cato’s second collection, The Dancing Bough, which was published in 1957. Like ‘The Road,’ many of the collection’s poems are concerned with existential questions pertaining to mortality and humans’ relationship to the natural world.
Detailed Analysis Stanza One I made the rising moon go back behind the shouldering hill, I raced along the eastern track till time itself stood still.
The poem begins with the use of the personal pronoun “I” which establishes one of the poem’s primary concerns: the individual’s relationship to the geographical and temporal world. The hyperbolic claim that the narrator “made the rising moon go back” emphasizes the notion that the moon and its surrounding darkness are adversarial figures. Furthermore, by forcing the moon to retreat, the narrator suggests they can control not only celestial objects but the passage of time, which is so closely associated with the moon and its movements.
This preoccupation with time continues into lines three and four, as shown through the paradoxical juxtaposition between the stillness of time and the rapid movement of the narrator. This juxtaposition suggests the narrator does not see themselves as bound to the laws of time. The final line’s use of both alliteration and sibilance forces the reader to slow their reading pace in order to pronounce each word clearly, which mirrors the narrator’s claim that the passage of time is malleable.
Stanza Two The stars swarmed on behind the trees, (…) and night turn back to day. The writer uses zoomorphism when likening the stars to a group of swarming insects. This could suggest the narrator feels a degree of dominance over nature. However, it could also indicate how overwhelmed they felt by the stars on account of their seemingly incomprehensible number. The stanza furthers the narrator’s claim that they can control and even reverse the passage of time by metaphorically stating they could “turn [night] back to day.” This distortion of linear time could be intended to embody the experience of a driver traveling at high speed due to the way their surroundings blur in their peripheral vision as though they were moving through time.
Stanza Three And like a long black carpet behind the wheels, the night unrolled across the countryside, but all ahead was bright. Stanza three begins by using a simile to describe the night as “like a long black carpet.” This is significant as it reaffirms the association between night’s darkness and the forces of evil due to the negative connotations of the adjective “black.” Perhaps more interestingly, though, the decision to liken night to a carpet implies the narrator can traverse it like they would a physical space. This strengthens the narrator’s assertion that they can move through time as freely as their car moves along the road.
The stanza’s final line establishes a dichotomy between the light that lies ahead of the car and the darkness behind it. Therefore, the car and its driver occupy a liminal space that is neither light or dark, thereby showing the narrator to be beyond their control or influence.
Stanza Four The fence-posts whizzed along wires (…) and slipped into the past. The poetic gaze begins to linger on fleeting details that are visible through the windscreen as the car moves at great speed. The use of alliteration in the first line evokes a sense of speed which is reinforced by the onomatopoeic verb “whizzed.” The poet also makes a point of embodying lengths of time within the objects, as shown through a simile when the “telephone poles loomed up like years.” This could be intended to showcase the narrator’s conflation of their geographical journey with a temporal one, as they can no longer distinguish between physical objects and abstract concepts.
Stanza Five And light and movement, sky and road (…) I drove towards the sun. The final stanza makes the aforementioned conflation explicit by metaphorically blurring the boundaries between the narrator’s surroundings and the concepts of life and time themselves. This conflation serves to simplify the narrator’s journey by implying it to be a spiritual transition from darkness to light rather than merely a journey that begins during the night but continues into the following day. There is perhaps a level of irony to the focus on the dawn ahead, given the dangers of driving so fast at night. It could be that the light ahead of the narrator represents an afterlife they might soon journey to if their reckless behavior has fatal consequences.
FAQS
What does the rising sun represent?
The significance of the dawn is complicated by the fact that the rising sun already possesses many connotations before its usage in the poem. Ordinarily, one might associate dawn with new beginnings and therefore view it as a hopeful symbol. However, given the narrator’s disregard for the linear passage of time, in this poem, the dawn may serve as a warning that humanity is running out of new beginnings.
Another connotation of the rising sun that is pertinent to this poem is the enduring association between light and the divine, particularly heaven. This is important as the driver’s behavior is reckless and the rising sun could foreshadow their death.
What is the structure of ‘The Road,’ and why is it important?
The poem is written in the style of a lyric ballad, a form of narrative poetry that helps elevate the literal journey and allows it to take on existential significance. The first stanza has an ABAB rhyme scheme, while subsequent stanzas have an ABCB rhyme scheme. This shift could mark the moment that the narrator assumed control of time or symbolize the gradual collapse of the world around them. Where was Nancy Fotheringham Cato from?
Nancy Fotheringham Cato was born in Adelaide in 1917 and, despite traveling extensively in her lifetime, lived most of her life in Australia, where she died in 2000. Her relationship with her native country informed much of her work, as its geography influenced much of her writing. She was also motivated to dispel the view that Australia had not produced a great deal of meaningful literature. Finally, the geography of her country, where one can drive for hours between conurbations, clearly forms the backdrop of ‘The Road.’
What does the “shouldering hill” mean?
Ordinarily, when one uses the phrase “to shoulder”, it means that they are taking on a burden of some kind, either literal or figurative. Therefore, it could suggest that the hill must bear the weight of the moon or, perhaps more interestingly, the responsibility for the passing of time. Given Fotheringham Cato’s enduring interest in environmental and conservation issues, it could imply that nature has been overburdened by some force, possibly caused by human actions.
