Question by batman: what does “ward rounds” mean?
its in this poem ” these trees stand” by WD Snodgrass. can anyone interepret this for me?

These Trees stand (1960)

These trees stand very tall under the heavens.
While they stand, if I walk, all stars traverse
This steep celestial gulf their branches chart.
Though lovers stand at sixes and at sevens
While civilization come down with the curse,
Snodgrass is walking through the universe

I can’t make any world go around your house.
But note this moon, recall how the night-nurse
Goes ward-rounds, by the mild, reflective art
Of focusing her flashlight on her blouse.
Your name’s safe conduct into love or verse;
Snodgrass is walking through the universe.

Your name’s absurd, miraculous as sperm
And as decisive. If you can’t coerce
One thing outside yourself, why you’d
Be the poet!
Wat irrefrangible atoms whirl, affirm
Their destiny and form Lucinda’s skirts1
She can’t make up your mind, soon as you know it,
Your firmament grows touchable and firm.
If all this world runs battlefield or

Best answer:

Answer by JaneB
It’s a nurse doing her rounds at night through the hospital wards, to check on the sleeping patients. So it’s an analogy of the care that the nurse imparts to her patients and how her flashlight lights her way. In fact, she is gentle even in this action, because the poet implies that, instead of shining her light directly at the patient, she shines it onto her blouse and the softer reflected light is what she uses to check the patient. The moon is doing a similar “round” and gently illuminating the recipient of the poem.

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