The Poet

The Poet - meaning Summary

Identity Bound to the Hour

The speaker addresses an hour as both ally and thief: time brings the very energy for creative song while wounding and carrying it away. The poet claims no fixed home, love, or household sanctuary, presenting a life emptied by devotion to art. Paradoxically, what the speaker pours out impoverishes him even as those things gain richness. The poem sketches vocation as a lonely, sacrificial dependence on fleeting time.