The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain...
The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain... - meaning Summary
Greed's Gilded Corruption
Tennyson depicts people drifting along an "ideal" stream toward Pactolus—an image of seductive wealth—who sacrifice soul and reason for glittering sands. Even if a wise observer saw the cavernous riches beneath, the poem reveals that beauty and gold conceal moral decay: Hatred resides in a golden cave, wrapped in shining armor and a snake. The poem contrasts outward splendor with hidden corruption, warning that riches mask ruin and hatred.
Read Complete AnalysesThe pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain, Down an ideal stream they ever float, And sailing on Pactolus in a boat, Drown soul and sense, while wistfully they strain Weak eyes upon the glistering sands that robe The understream. The wise could he behold Cathedralled caverns of thick-ribbed gold And branching silvers of the central globe, Would marvel from so beautiful a sight How scorn and ruin, pain and hate could flow: But Hatred in a gold cave sits below, Pleached with her hair, in mail of argent light Shot into gold, a snake her forehead clips And skins the colour from her trembling lips.
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