The title of the poem means “disgusting period”: the word ‘skunk’ denotes to a small and badly smelling rat-like animal, but as an adjective (before the word ‘hour’) it means ‘extremely hateful’; the word ‘hour’ must mean ‘period’, ‘time’ or ‘phase’. The title points to the disgusting phase of life that the poet was living when he had lost the courage, desire and purpose of living life. The first part of the poem is pessimistic: stanzas 1 to 6 express frustrations, doubt and failures. But the poem ends with a deep realization about why his life was becoming meaningless and painful: he sees a dirty small animal enjoying life, having the physical, mental and spiritual strength to live on. He realizes by looking at the simple skunk that he was not having the fertile mind, spirit and body to bring up the energies to live actively. The poem can be divided into four main parts or stages of development of images. The first part presents an old woman in a lonely island trying to maintain her old ways by buying cultural antiques. But she fails. The second part begins with “the season is ill”, an expression of frustration. The speaker mentions how a “summer millionaire” has gone bankrupt and auctioned his yacht. Another businessman fails to attract customers by decorating his shop, and so he'd rather marry”. Besides there is also a hint of violence: A red fox stain covers ‘Blue Hill’. The third part of the poem shows how the persona wanders in intense agony and spiritual crisis. He climbs a hill and finds the degraded modern condition. His spirit cries. His mind is not right. He echoes the sayings of Saint John, King Lear and Satan, all of which express emotional crisis. In the last two stanzas, we find the speaker looking at a skunk and its kittens fearlessly coming to a city street and eating garbage. The skunks’ passion or strong desire for life, their fertility and naturalness and their original