To III
To III - meaning Summary
Unrequited Devotion as Sacrifice
The speaker addresses Juliet with devotional intensity and treats love as the speaker's life. He claims to live through loving her, yet frames unreturned affection as a fragrant flame that both sanctifies and destroys, like a sacrificial offering. Religious and fiery imagery conveys simultaneous exaltation and consumption: the beloved's eyes ignite the speaker’s heart, which is transformed into longing and sighs, alive yet wounded by absence.
Read Complete AnalysesSainted Juliet! dearest name! If to love be life alone, Divinest Juliet, I love thee, and live; and yet Love unreturned is like the fragrant flame Folding the slaughter of the sacrifice Offered to gods upon an altarthrone; My heart is lighted at thine eyes, Changed into fire, and blown about with sighs.
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