The Mist
The Mist - meaning Summary
Obscuring Barrier of Understanding
The poem speaks in the voice of the mist as an impalpable, primordial barrier that prevents humans from reaching ultimate knowledge. The mist claims long, inescapable arms that tangle seekers and create the baffled Sphinx. Despite toil and occasional glimpses of "vital, olden glory," people cannot pass it. The speaker insists it existed at the beginning and will remain at the end, underscoring limits to human understanding.
Read Complete AnalysesI am the mist, the impalpable mist, Back of the thing you seek. My arms are long, Long as the reach of time and space. Some toil and toil, believing, Looking now and again on my face, Catching a vital, olden glory. But no one passes me, I tangle and snare them all. I am the cause of the Sphinx, The voiceless, baffled, patient Sphinx. I was at the first of things, I will be at the last. I am the primal mist And no man passes me; My long impalpable arms Bar them all.
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