Some Afternoons She Does Not Pick Up the Phone

Although the poem’s location is not stated, it can be inferred it is a wintry town in North America, a place that sees long winters. This could be a town in Canada, where Carson was born, or in the northeast United States, where she often teaches. Alternatively, it could be any snowy place in the Northern Hemisphere. February is a cold month in Toronto, where Carson was born, and in Quebec, where she studied and often teaches. Temperatures are still below freezing point—in Quebec City the average low for February is -14 degrees Celsius—and days experience just four to five hours of sunlight.

Snow can still be found in most parts of Canada in February, with lakes frozen over and roads slick with ice. Some of the snow of December and January becomes compacted into slippery ice. By February, winter has lasted for many months, which causes a proliferation of ice. Fresh snowfall may still occur, but because of temperatures being warmer than January, the snow tends to melt and refreeze. Particularly dangerous is the phenomenon called “black ice,” where briefly melted snow again freezes to a thin layer of ice over flat surfaces like roads and metal. Because black ice is thin and clear, people can step on it mistakenly and slip and fall.

These specifics of weather and geography—even when not spelled out—dominate “Some Afternoons.” The ice and its dangers are literal as well as metaphorical, with the poet using ice to symbolize a despondent mental state. While the speaker’s despair in the poem can also apply to universal melancholy, here it is linked with the weather. It can be inferred that the lack of sunlight and the ubiquity of slippery ice have laid the speaker under a state of siege. The monotony and extremity of the weather have come to dominate their internal landscape as well. Thus, the poet draws attention to how weather can deeply affect one’s psyche.