Sometimes the Sky's Too Bright
Sometimes the Sky's Too Bright - meaning Summary
Overwhelmed by Intrusive Pain
The speaker describes moments when external brightness and inner images overwhelm his capacity to act or think. He alternates between blunt impotence and violent fantasy, seeing a figure who looks angelic yet causes pain. The poem traces a collapsing boundary between self and other: the speaker feels another’ody’leed and recognizes the wound as his own. It ends in stalled compassion and unresolved guilt, a cycle of sensation without relief.
Read Complete AnalysesSometimes the sky's too bright, Or has too many clouds or birds, And far away's too sharp a sun To nourish thinking of him. Why is my hand too blunt To cut in front of me My horrid images for me, Of over-fruitful smiles, The weightless touching of the lip I wish to know I cannot lift, but can, The creature with the angel's face Who tells me hurt, And sees my body go Down into misery? No stopping. Put the smile Where tears have come to dry. The angel's hurt is left; His telling burns. Sometimes a woman's heart has salt, Or too much blood; I tear her breast, And see the blood is mine, Flowing from her, but mine, And then I think Perhaps the sky's too bright; And watch my hand, But do not follow it, And feel the pain it gives, But do not ache.
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