A Tongue to Tell Him I Am True!
poem 400
A Tongue to Tell Him I Am True! - meaning Summary
Perpetual Fidelity Beyond End
The poem voices a speaker who insists a messenger declare her unwavering fidelity. She imagines Nature’s poverty turned to costly payment, offers rewards to ensure the message is delivered, and urges the boy to speak plainly and enlarge the claim if necessary. The vow is exaggerated into cosmic terms: fidelity will persist “when the Hills come down” and even after the heavens disband. The urgency and bargaining with material riches underscore a conscience or devotion that outlasts ordinary time, making the pledge absolute and assured against any imaginable end.
Read Complete AnalysesA Tongue to tell Him I am true! Its fee to be of Gold Had Nature in Her monstrous House A single Ragged Child To earn a Mine would run That Interdicted Way, And tell Him Charge thee speak it plain That so far Truth is True? And answer What I do Beginning with the Day That Night begun Nay Midnight ’twas Since Midnight happened say If once more Pardon Boy The Magnitude thou may Enlarge my Message If too vast Another Lad help thee Thy Pay in Diamonds be And His in solid Gold Say Rubies if He hesitate My Message must be told Say last I said was This That when the Hills come down And hold no higher than the Plain My Bond have just begun And when the Heavens disband And Deity conclude Then look for me. Be sure you say Least Figure on the Road
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