Phedre
Phedre - meaning Summary
Classical Longing and Rebirth
The speaker addresses a person whose manner and beauty make the modern world appear dull. He imagines that this figure belonged to ancient Greece — having mingled with Mirandola, Pan, and Phæacian maidens — and suggests their presence is a reincarnation. The poem contrasts an elevated classical past and a loveless afterlife with the banality of the present, implying the subject returned because even death’s comfort was unbearable.
Read Complete AnalysesHow vain and dull this common world must seem To such a One as thou, who should'st have talked At Florence with Mirandola, or walked Through the cool olives of the Academe: Thou should'st have gathered reeds from a green stream For Goat-foot Pan's shrill piping, and have played With the white girls in that Phæacian glade Where grave Odysseus wakened from his dream. Ah! surely once some urn of Attic clay Held thy wan dust, and thou hast come again Back to this common world so dull and vain, For thou wert weary of the sunless day, The heavy fields of scentless asphodel, The loveless lips with which men kiss in Hell.
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