Oranges Sadness Quotes

The landscape the speaker describes is far from a happy, Christmas-y winter wonderland. This is gloomy stuff. It's the kind of weather that can get you down. The word choice makes it all seem even more negative. "Cracking" is almost never good. And the wording of "my breath / Before me, then gone" sounds a little like—gulp—death. Death is, after all, when your breath is gone for good, right?

You're standing out in the cold near a used car lot. A dog is barking at you. How do you feel? Chances are you'd be feeling a little glum. The only way this scenario gets cheerful is if you happen to be hanging out with your sweetheart. That, as we see in "Oranges," has the power to change our perception of just about everything.

It doesn't get much sadder and lonelier than these sounds and images. Those tires on the damp pavement certainly aren't making a happy sound. Have you ever heard anyone say, "Listen to that beautiful hissing, doesn't it just put a smile on your face"? We think not. In the weather department, it doesn't get much more depressing than fog. And that simile, the fog "hanging like old coats between the trees," makes it even worse. Those old discarded coats floating between the trees seem almost ghost-like. Spooky—sad and spooky.