The poet celebrates man and nature as they work together completing the same activities. There are long files of both men and ants and they are all bearing the same loads. There is a sense of the cyclical nature of the day. It is morning, the sun’s gong calls both men and creatures, and they are all involved in physical labour at the same time.
The poet uses metaphor as he compares the abundance of flowers to a flood of water. Nature is overflowing with the magnificence and beauty of vibrant flowers. The alliteration of the f sound emphasises how plentiful the flowers are and how the brilliant they are in colour and splendour.
The poet uses diction that is associated with excess. The word ‘mad’ implies out of control. The sound is so shrill that, for man, it is ‘too high to bear’. The poet also uses figures of speech to convey the oppressive heat. The heat is ‘sizzling’ (onomatopoeia) – it is so hot that the air almost hisses in the midday sun. The zenith is ‘white-hot’ is a metaphor. The sun is at its highest point in the sky and the heat is so intense that it is compared to the extreme temperatures in a fire or a furnace.
Human beings are portrayed as being unable to bear the extreme heat of the day or the high pitched ‘din’ of the cicadas. They attempt to escape to ‘shadow’ or ‘shaded rooms’ or hide their faces in ‘folded arms’. Human beings are out of harmony with nature because, as the creatures are celebrating the midday, man is out of action. The poet also introduces the moral degeneration and violence of man in stanza three as he alludes to a war and sickness.