In the Forest
In the Forest - meaning Summary
Chase of Desire and Art
The speaker watches a faun burst from woodland twilight into a sunlit meadow and becomes obsessed. Torn between following the creature's shadow or its song, the speaker begs a hunter to seize the shadow and a nightingale to trap the music. The poem registers an irresistible pursuit of beauty that mixes sensual and artistic attraction, and the speaker’s fear of being driven to "music and madness" if desire remains uncontained.
Read Complete AnalysesOut of the mid-wood's twilight Into the meadow's dawn, Ivory limbed and brown-eyed, Flashes my Faun! He skips through the copses singing, And his shadow dances along, And I know not which I should follow, Shadow or song! O Hunter, snare me his shadow! O Nightingale, catch me his strain! Else moonstruck with music and madness I track him in vain!
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