Getting Out

I though this poem was about the struggles of leaving a love. We see that the husband tried for "weeks" to leave over his pile of things but could never quite really leave. This tone of acceptance comes at the very end when the speaker says, "We held on tight, and let go." I took this as that their relationship was not working and although they it was hard to part they needed to. So in the end the learned to let go of each other knowing it was for the best to have a happier life. It also speaks of the conflict that is involved in marraiges. Their unhappiness is compared to prisons in which inmates "beat the walls" from being trapped. I think that is what these characters were feeling, the feeling of being trapped.