Had I a Cave
written in 1793
Had I a Cave - meaning Summary
Exile for Betrayed Love
The poem presents a speaker driven to the brink by romantic betrayal. He imagines withdrawing to a remote cave to weep and find final rest, expressing a desire to remove himself from public life and pain. Addressing a faithless woman, he denounces her broken vows as transient and taunts her to test the peace of her new lover’s breast. The tone mixes bleak resignation with bitter reproach, and the central concerns are loss, disillusionment, and the urge for absolute withdrawal from a world that has inflicted emotional injury.
Read Complete AnalysesHad I a cave on some wild, distant shore, Where the winds howl to the waves' dashing roar: There would I weep my woes, There seek my lost repose, Till Grief my eyes should close, Ne'er to wake more. Falsest of womankind, canst thou declare, All thy fond plighted vows- fleeting as air! To thy new lover hie, Laugh o'er thy perjury Then in thy bosom try, What peace is there!
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