To My Enemy
To My Enemy - meaning Summary
Gratitude for Adversarial Push
The speaker addresses an enemy with ironic gratitude, arguing that hostility and scorn, not friendship, drove personal growth. The poem credits the enemy’s hate, sneer, and anger with motivating effort, purging complacency, and inspiring achievement that love might not have achieved. It contrasts public praise for friendship with a private acknowledgment that adversarial pressure served as an unflagging spur throughout the speaker’s life.
Read Complete AnalysesLet those who will of friendship sing, And to its guerdon grateful be, But I a lyric garland bring To crown thee, O, mine enemy! Thanks, endless thanks, to thee I owe For that my lifelong journey through Thine honest hate has done for me What love perchance had failed to do. I had not scaled such weary heights But that I held thy scorn in fear, And never keenest lure might match The subtle goading of thy sneer. Thine anger struck from me a fire That purged all dull content away, Our mortal strife to me has been Unflagging spur from day to day. And thus, while all the world may laud The gifts of love and loyalty, I lay my meed of gratitude Before thy feet, mine enemy!
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