Offering
Offering - meaning Summary
Transfiguration Through Love
The poem expresses a lover’s transformative exaltation. The speaker feels physically and spiritually renewed by the beloved, describing bodily radiance, pride, and a shedding of past traits. The beloved’s smile reshapes perception, and the speaker gathers visions and memories to present as offerings. Erotic and sacred imagery—an altar, the beloved’s hair and breasts—merge devotion with desire, framing love as both transformative and consecrating.
Read Complete AnalysesMy body glows in every vein and blooms To fullest flower since I first knew thee, My walk unconscious pride and power assumes; Who art thou then—thou who awaitest me? When from the past I draw myself the while I lose old traits as leaves of autumn fall; I only know the radiance of thy smile, Like the soft gleam of stars, transforming all. Through childhood's years I wandered unaware Of shimmering visions my thoughts now arrests To offer thee, as on an altar fair That's lighted by the bright flame of thy hair And wreathéd by the blossoms of thy breasts.
Translated by Jessie Lamont
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