Casida of the Impossible Hand
Casida of the Impossible Hand - meaning Summary
Longing for a Single Hand
The poem expresses a concentrated longing for a single hand as a source of solace, ritual, and dignity amid mortality. The speaker repeatedly insists that even a wounded hand will suffice to comfort, anoint, and accompany them through dying. Imagery — dove, white sheet, wing of death — ties romantic attachment to final rites. Everything else is transient; the hand alone carries lasting meaning and intimate support at the end.
Read Complete AnalysesI want no more than a hand, A wounded hand, if possible. I want no more than a hand, even if I spend a thousand nights with no bed. It would be a pale lily of lime, a dove it would be, chained to my heart, the guard it would be, who on my last night would deny the moon entrance wholly. I want no more than that hand for daily unction, the white sheet of my dying. I want no more than that hand to bear a wing of my death. All the rest passes. Blush now without a name. Perpetual star. The rest is the other; sad breeze, While the hosts of leaves flee.
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