Self-deceit
Self-deceit - meaning Summary
Mistaking Signs for Truth
The speaker imagines a neighbor watching or listening for them and interprets a moving curtain as evidence of jealousy and attention. They confess that their own suspicions persist within them, then admit the scene is likely innocent: only an evening breeze moves the curtain. The poem sketches how desire and insecurity create false readings of ordinary signs and ends in a quiet self-awareness about projection and mistaken perception.
Read Complete AnalysesMy neighbour's curtain, well I see, Is moving to and fro. No doubt she's listening eagerly, If I'm at home or no. And if the jealous grudge I bore And openly confess'd, Is nourish'd by me as before, Within my inmost breast. Alas! no fancies such as these E'er cross'd the dear child's thoughts. I see 'tis but the evening breeze That with the curtain sports.
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