The Weather

Temperature and weather conditions play a big part in "Oranges." The poem's cold, wintry setting comes in sharp contrast to all those warm, lovey-dovey feelings the speaker is having for his girl. The poem's whole "love set against an icy backdrop" thing is where Disney got the idea for the blockbuster Frozen (just kidding.)

• Lines 3-7: Right from the start, Soto uses the weather to set the scene. Before we're even 10 lines into "Oranges," we know that it's "cold" and there's "frost" on the ground. Brr. This wintry language comes as kind of a surprise after the title. When we see the word "oranges," we're expecting something a little sunnier. That's because most of the associations we have with the fruit and the color orange are bright and summery. Even very early in the poem, Soto sets up the contrast between warm thoughts and a frosty landscape.
• Lines 9-14: The speaker describes his girl's house as "the one whose / Porch light burned yellow / […] in any weather." With the image of the yellow porch light so close to the word "weather," it's hard not to picture the sun. Soto is connecting the girl's house with sunny weather.
  But our boy Gary doesn't stop there. He goes on to describe the girl's face when she first appears on the porch: it's "bright." After the description of the yellow porch light "burn[ing]" above their heads, it feels like the girl is illuminated by sunlight. Despite how cold and gloomy the weather really is, for our speaker the sun never sets on this girl.
• Lines 44-46: When the speaker and his girl emerge from the drugstore, we get another description of the conditions outside. The weather hasn't gotten any better. The description of the cars "hissing past" makes the scene seem somehow even damper and colder than before, and that simile comparing the fog to "old coats" creates kind of a lonely feeling. But once we discover that the speaker was able to get the chocolate after all and that the young couple is holding hands, this cold, damp, lonely exterior comes into sharp contrast with those warm fuzzy feelings the speaker and the girl are experiencing.
  The cold setting has a way of amplifying our experience of the couple's feelings—kind of like the way you appreciate the warmth of a roaring fire more if you've been outside all day skiing or hunting elk or whatever.
• Lines 51-56: Just in case you missed the whole cold weather-warm feelings thing, Soto concludes the poem with one more example. When the speaker finally peels his orange, it is "bright against / The gray of December." The vibrant color of the orange, which has come to represent love, is so intense that is overpowers the "gray" December weather. Love conquers all—even in meteorology.
  The description of the orange appearing as "fire in [the speaker's] hands" touches again on the idea that the love he feels is kind of like his own personal sun, keeping everything bright and warm even on the gloomiest of days.