Lines
Lines - meaning Summary
Intimate Reverie of Desire
The speaker addresses a sleeping beloved and dwells on sensual impressions—soft lids, moist lips—and the powerful, ambiguous effect they have: provoking both madness and willing surrender. Imagery and intimate attention convert sensory detail into longing and a claim that love exceeds limits. By the poem's close the speaker accepts desire as a guiding law and resolves to renew his bliss in the present, celebrating dalliance and the immediacy of feeling.
Read Complete AnalysesUnfelt unheard, unseen, I've left my little queen, Her languid arms in silver slumber lying: Ah! through their nestling touch, Who---who could tell how much There is for madness---cruel, or complying? Those faery lids how sleek! Those lips how moist!---they speak, In ripest quiet, shadows of sweet sounds: Into my fancy's ear Melting a burden dear, How "Love doth know no fullness, nor no bounds." True!---tender monitors! I bend unto your laws: This sweetest day for dalliance was born! So, without more ado, I'll feel my heaven anew, For all the blushing of the hasty morn.
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