Imagery and Analysis - A Blessing

In 'A Blessing' by James Wright, he expresses his love and passion for ponies. It starts off with the setting, which is on a highway, 'just off Rochester, Minnesota', the time is at twilight, which 'bounds softly forth on the grass'. He looks at two Indian ponies, whose eyes are 'darken with kindness'. The ponies come welcome the speaker and his friend, as the speaker and his friend steps over the barbed wire into the pasture. 'They have been grazing, alone' implies that these horses were abandoned here, and probably do not have as much contact with humans. The horses are described to be happy that they are visited, and they 'ripple tensely, they can hardly contain the happiness that we have come'. It is also stated here that they love eachother. The speaker approaches the slenderer one, which is black and white, as the pony nuzzles his hand. The pony's mane 'fails wild on her forehead'. The speaker is moved by the 'light wind' to caress the pony's long ears. The speaker describes the feeling of the pony's ears to be as soft as the skin on a girl's wrist, which means it is delicate and soft. The last line is perhaps an indication that he suddenly bursts out of the trance and comes back to reality, where he realizes that if he were not as he is now, he would probably 'break into blossom', meaning be carried away even more by this trance. Perhaps he means that if he continued staying he would break into something more wonderful, and less sinister, then the human soul. This whole poem has a feeling of idleness, tranquility, and as if in trance.