NOTES on the poem "Tall nettles" by Edward Thomas

The narrator of this poem, which is written in two quatrains, describes a corner of the farmyard in which tall nettles cover old farm implements and suggests that he likes it because it is a reminder of mutability (liability to change) and the transience of life. The first stanza tells us that the nettles tower over the implements, except for the roller handle, as if they want to assert the supremacy of life and hide …

…this otherwise neglected and insignificant part of the farmyard. In this context, then, it becomes clear that the word "nettles" in the title (nettles are a stinging plant) is ambiguous and refers not only to the plants that are covering the implements but also to the principles of mutability and transience which are hidden be the nettles, and which people find hard to contemplate because it is not easy to accept the inevitability of death.