Sonnet for Christmas
Sonnet for Christmas - meaning Summary
Love as Resilient Root
The poem moves from fear to assurance. Early images of winter, storm and loss suggest love and time may fail. The speaker then finds a small, persistent presence—likened to a seed or root—buried and waiting. This subterranean figure becomes proof of love's endurance. As root that holds the vine, it resists death, hate and destruction. The poem affirms endurance and continuity rather than final loss.
Read Complete AnalysesI saw our golden years on a black gale, our time of love spilt in the furious dust. "O we are winter-caught, and we must fail," said the dark dream, "and time is overcast." -And woke into the night; but you were there, and small as seed in the wild dark we lay. Small as seed under the gulfs of air is set the stubborn heart that waits for day. I saw our love the root that holds the vine in the enduring earth, that can reply, "Nothing shall die unless for me it die. Murder and hate and love alike are mine"; and therefore fear no winter and no storm while in the knot of earth that root lies warm.
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