Summer in the Yakima Valley

The poem “Summer in the Yakima Valley” includes a lot of contrast. The main one is that the first half of the poem is in the day, and the second half is in the night. The day describes the daily life on the farm, while the night is a whole different scene. This puts different moods into the poem and sets the theme to be very broad and expanding, yet narrow and precise if you really look close. The day also represents the narrator and his cousin being together like in line 16-18 “In over-the-knees rubber boots… my cousin and I stomped the uneven ground”. Once it turned night though, “he always fell asleep first, my cousin, leaving me to listen alone” line 31-33. Now the narrator is alone, and can hear the coyote’s cry. The mood changes to a dim, dark sense of purpose. Certain sights appear in the night that do not in the daytime. This poem is full of contrast.