The Tomb of a Young Girl
The Tomb of a Young Girl - meaning Summary
Loss and Remembered Passion
The poem recalls a young woman’s brief, intense affair through memory and imagery. The speaker contrasts youthful innocence and smallness with a powerful, consuming desire likened to the sea. Natural images (a lemon-tree, the sea) and a mythic masculine figure—described as a wandering, destructive god—frame the lover as both wise and violative. The tone mixes reverence and mourning, suggesting loss, violation, and the lingering imprint of passion after death.
Read Complete AnalysesWe still remember! The same as of yore All that has happened once again must be. As grows a lemon-tree upon the shore— It was like that—your light, small breasts you bore, And his blood's current coursed like the wild sea. That god— who was the wanderer, the slim Despoiler of fair women; he—the wise,— But sweet and glowing as your thoughts of him Who cast a shadow over your young limb While bending like your arched brows o'er your eyes.
Translated by Jessie Lamont
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