"Gray's First Sober Year" by William Notter

The poem talks about this new found experience, almost a rebirth into--a new life--a new begining. The poem starts off relating to similiar situations, but ending up with very different results. He mentions this when he awakes up in the morning, how he does it everyday, but it somehow is new--it's different. He now knows where he is--no longer feeling dizzy and confused, but instead calmer and more in control.

But then the poem shifts. I talks about shopping, shopping for an aniversary gift, and hearing tears. Assuming that there is something wrong, but then realizing this great relief that those tears, were not of sadness but rather of joy. Tears from his wife that he hasn't heard since a those terrible days when he was drunk. Everything the same, but yet, new, odd, and different.

He goes on talking about the wife, moving the focus a little, creating this image, this angelic image. That she was the one always there for him, just waiting and helping him to pull through, never giving up on him. Within the words, the strong sense of graditude is truly sensed. The last line, he wakes up, feeling as if the situation is switched, since he used to be the one always oversleeping, and she would watch him as she got up, but now that he is sober he wakes up before her.