Before I Got My Eye Put Out
poem 327
Before I Got My Eye Put Out - meaning Summary
Vision and Inward Sight
The speaker imagines losing an eye and reflects on what sight means. Before blindness she enjoyed seeing like other creatures; then she imagines being given the whole sky and being overwhelmed by earthly vision. The poem contrasts visual abundance with the vulnerability it brings, and the speaker concludes that relying on the soul’s inner sight is safer. The final image likens the soul to a cautious eye at a windowpane, suggesting a tempered, inward perception that protects against the dazzling, potentially destructive spectacle of the external world.
Read Complete AnalysesBefore I got my eye put out I liked as well to see As other Creatures, that have Eyes And know no other way But were it told to me Today That I might have the sky For mine I tell you that my Heart Would split, for size of me The Meadows mine The Mountains mine All Forests Stintless Stars As much of Noon as I could take Between my finite eyes The Motions of the Dipping Birds The Morning’s Amber Road For mine to look at when I liked The News would strike me dead So safer guess with just my soul Upon the Window pane Where other Creatures put their eyes Incautious of the Sun
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