Forsaken
from The German
Forsaken - meaning Summary
Love, Guilt, and Maternal Vow
The poem presents a speaker who declares that the heart needs something to love and burn for. Addressing a child, the speaker finds in the child a return from sin to innocence and urges the child to be steadfast, not to repeat the father’s faithlessness. The speaker promises unending maternal devotion, swearing never to forsake the child until the mother dies, linking redemption and loyalty.
Read Complete AnalysesSomething the heart must have to cherish, Must love and joy and sorrow learn, Something with passion clasp, or perish, And in itself to ashes burn. So to this child my heart is clinging, And its frank eyes, with look intense, Me from a world of sin are bringing Back to a world of innocence. Disdain must thou endure for ever; Strong may thy heart in danger be! Thou shalt not fail! but ah, be never False as thy father was to me. Never will I forsake thee, faithless, And thou thy mother ne'er forsake, Until her lips are white and breathless, Until in death her eyes shall break.
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