Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty’s Bloom
Oh! Snatched Away in Beauty’s Bloom - meaning Summary
Grief That Won’t Be Silenced
Byron’s lyric mourns a premature death and the inadequate consolations offered afterward. The speaker imagines a gentle grave tended by roses, cypress and a bubbling stream, while personified Sorrow lingers there. Yet the poem questions the value of tears and conventional reassurances; grief persists despite reasoned counsel to forget. The final lines address a would-be comforter whose own damp eyes reveal that loss cannot be easily dismissed or erased.
Read Complete AnalysesOh! snatched away in beauty’s bloom, On thee shall press no ponderous tomb; But on thy turf shall roses rear Their leaves, the earliest of ‘ the year; And the wild cypress wave in tender gloom: And oft by yon blue gushing stream Shall Sorrow lean her drooping head, And feed deep thought with many a dream, And lingering pause and lightly tread; Fond wretch! as if her step disturbed the dead! Away I we know that tears are vain, That death nor heeds nor hears distress: Will this unteach us to complain? Or make one mourner weep the less? And thou – who tell’st me to forget, Thy looks are wan, thine eyes are wet.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.