Here where the wind is always north-northeast
And children learn to walk on frozen toes.

The lines evoke a place defined by relentless cold and hardship: a wind “always north-northeast” suggests an unchanging, inhospitable climate, while children learning to walk on “frozen toes” compresses an entire upbringing into an image of early endurance. Robinson often uses stark physical details to imply emotional or social conditions—poverty, isolation, or the grim normalization of suffering. The tone is not merely descriptive; it implies a community shaped by severity, where even childhood is acclimatization to discomfort. The couplet’s vivid concreteness also hints at memory and regional identity, as if the speaker is locating character and fate in the weather itself.