Poetry Precis 9- "Tour" by Carol Snow

   In the poem "Tour", Carol Snow uses imagery and a peaceful tone to convey the message that often times, one cannot read situations simply based off of how they appear. Although the whole poem may seem to be simple at first glance to the reader, beneath the short and concise lines lies this deeper meaning. "Near a shrine in Japan he'd swept the path and then placed camellia blossoms there. Or- we had no way of knowing- he'd swept the path between fallen camellias" is how the speaker relays his or her message that one may not be able to tell how something occurs simply by looking at it on the surface level. The idea is that in this situation, the uncertainty of whether the man had "placed  camellia blossoms there" or had "swept the path between fallen camellias" remains an uncertainty. In other words, the speaker presents a question to the reader but the question cannot be answered; and that is the whole point. No one will ever know what truly happened and it is not worth it for anyone to make assumptions because of the fact that the only one who will ever know is the man who was there. Through her description of the setting using imagery, Snow reveals that often times, we are presented with situations that we are simply not able to uncover when looking at them from an outside perspective.