Guido Invites You Thus
Guido Invites You Thus - meaning Summary
A Claim of Shared Voyage
The speaker addresses a companion, urging a solitary voyage together while insisting on distinct roles: he owns the ship, the addressee brings the cargo. He professes deep knowledge of the other's heart and dreams, claims life and human currents are merged in his sea, and challenges the other's lack of true journeying. The poem frames intimacy as a shared expedition and a test of who truly undertakes the voyage.
Read Complete Analyses‘Lappo I leave behind and Dante too, Lo, I would sail the seas with thee alone! Talk me no love talk, no bought-cheap fiddl’ry, Mine is the ship and thine the merchandise, All the blind earth knows not th'emprise Whereto thou calledst and whereto I call. Lo, I have seen thee bound about with dreams, Lo, I have known thy heart and its desire; Life, all of it, my sea, and all men's streams Are fused in it as flames of an altar fire ! Lo, thou hast voyaged not! The ship is mine.'
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