To One Departed
To One Departed - form Summary
A Consoling Sonnet Turn
This sonnet frames the memory of a loved one as an enchanted island amid a tumultuous sea. The speaker contrasts external storms and a barren, sorrowful life with an inner refuge formed by recollection. Memory provides continual calm skies and an "Eden of bland repose," offering consolation rather than explicit mourning. The poem thus presents idealized remembrance as a sustaining, serene shelter against worldly cares and woes.
Read Complete AnalysesSeraph! thy memory is to me Like some enchanted far-off isle In some tumultuous sea – Some ocean vexed as it may be With storms; but where, meanwhile, Serenest skies continually Just o’er that one bright island smile. For ‘mid the earnest cares and woes That crowd around my earthly path, (Sad path, alas, where grows Not even one lonely rose!) My soul at least a solace hath In dreams of thee; and therein knows An Eden of bland repose.
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