A Virginal
A Virginal - meaning Summary
New Lightness of Love
A speaker rejects further advances because he has recently been captivated by a new beloved. He describes being lightly enmeshed, protected and transformed by her presence, using airy, botanical spring imagery to convey renewal and delicacy. The poem emphasizes an almost sacred preservation of this fresh affection—its subtle radiance, cleansing effect on winter wounds, and a desire to keep the relationship unspoiled by lesser attachments.
Read Complete AnalysesNo, no! Go from me. I have left her lately. I will not spoil my sheath with lesser brightness, For my surrounding air hath a new lightness; Slight are her arms, yet they have bound me straitly And left me cloaked as with a gauze of aether; As with sweet leaves; as with subtle clearness. Oh, I have picked up magic in her nearness To sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her. No, no! Go from me. I have still the flavour, Soft as spring wind that's come from birchen bowers. Green come the shoots, aye April in the branches, As winter's wound with her sleight hand she staunches, Hath of the trees a likeness of the savour: As white their bark, so white this lady's hours.
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