My Hero Bares His Nerves
My Hero Bares His Nerves - meaning Summary
Intimate Power and Vulnerability
The poem presents an intimate scene in which the speaker’s "hero" bares nerves and flesh, creating physical and emotional exposure. Sensual imagery—wrists, spine, loin—mixes with metaphors of wires, rulers, and hunger to show a fraught mix of tenderness and control. The hero both inspects and activates the speaker’s bodily and psychic responses, framing love as a force that reveals vulnerability while asserting power over life, desire, and mortality.
Read Complete AnalysesMy hero bares his nerves along my wrist That rules from wrist to shoulder, Unpacks the head that, like a sleepy ghost, Leans on my mortal ruler, The proud spine spurning turn and twist. And these poor nerves so wired to the skull Ache on the lovelorn paper I hug to love with my unruly scrawl That utters all love hunger And tells the page the empty ill. My hero bares my side and sees his heart Tread; like a naked Venus, The beach of flesh, and wind her bloodred plait; Stripping my loin of promise, He promises a secret heat. He holds the wire from this box of nerves Praising the mortal error Of birth and death, the two sad knaves of thieves, And the hunger's emperor; He pulls that chain, the cistern moves.
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