Taedium Vitae
Taedium Vitae - meaning Summary
Rejection of Worldly Compromises
The speaker rejects the compromises and performative trappings of youth and society—wealth, flattering people, and a life bound to fortune. He prefers withdrawal, solitude, and even humble lodging over returning to a corrupting public existence. The poem frames this refusal as moral and existential: isolation is less painful than being mocked, exploited, or drawn back into the sensual and spiritual conflict where his soul once encountered sin.
Read Complete AnalysesTo stab my youth with desperate knives, to wear This paltry age's gaudy livery, To let each base hand filch my treasury, To mesh my soul within a woman's hair, And be mere Fortune's lackeyed groom, - I swear I love it not! these things are less to me Than the thin foam that frets upon the sea, Less than the thistledown of summer air Which hath no seed: better to stand aloof Far from these slanderous fools who mock my life Knowing me not, better the lowliest roof Fit for the meanest hind to sojourn in, Than to go back to that hoarse cave of strife Where my white soul first kissed the mouth of sin.
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