To Fanny
To Fanny - meaning Summary
Urgent Plea for Complete Devotion
This sonnet is an urgent, direct plea for total, unwavering love. The speaker begs Fanny for her whole self—body and soul—warning that any withholding will cause extreme suffering, loss of purpose, and a kind of living death. The language compresses desire and fear into a single appeal, portraying love as both life-giving and all-consuming. It captures obsessive longing and the high emotional stakes of intimate devotion.
Read Complete AnalysesI cry your mercy—pity—love!—aye, love! Merciful love that tantalizes not, One-thoughted, never-wandering, guileless love, Unmasked, and being seen—without a blot! O! let me have thee whole,—all—all—be mine! That shape, that fairness, that sweet minor zest Of love, your kiss,—those hands, those eyes divine, That warm, white, lucent, million-pleasured breast,— Yourself—your soul—in pity give me all, Withhold no atom's atom or I die, Or living on, perhaps, your wretched thrall, Forget, in the mist of idle misery, Life's purposes,—the palate of my mind Losing its gust, and my ambition blind!
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