Amor Intellectualis
Amor Intellectualis - fact Summary
Wilde's Classical Literary Debt
The poem frames poetic creation as a shared voyage guided by the Muses and Castaly, recalling a rich literary inheritance. Wilde invokes figures and works—Sordello, Endymion, Tamburlaine, the Florentine vision, Milton—to name the treasured influences that have "freighted" the speaker’s argosy. It emphasizes admiration for classical, Renaissance, and Romantic traditions rather than personal narrative, situating Wilde within a continuum of canonical poets.
Read Complete AnalysesOften have we trod the vales of Castaly And heard sweet notes of sylvan music blown From antique reeds to common folk unknown: And often launched our bark upon that sea Which the nine Muses hold in empery, And ploughed free furrows through the wave and foam, Nor spread reluctant sail for more safe home Till we had freighted well our argosy. Of which despoilèd treasures these remain, Sordello's passion, and the honied line Of young Endymion, lordly Tamburlaine Driving his pampered jades, and more than these, The seven-fold vision of the Florentine, And grave-browed Milton's solemn harmonies.
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