No Cold Approach
written in 1792
No Cold Approach - meaning Summary
Sudden Intimacy, Sudden Loss
This short lyric describes a brief, intense relationship that begins with simple honesty and ends in sudden betrayal. The speaker praises the lack of artifice—"no cold approach, no altered mien"—then notes there was no drawn-out tension: the lover quickly made the speaker happy and then abruptly caused pain. The poem compresses a complete emotional arc into four lines, trading narrative detail for a stark contrast between initial trust and final heartbreak. It centers on the shock of disappointment when genuine feeling is overturned without warning.
Read Complete AnalysesNo cold approach, no altered mien, Just what would make suspicion start; No pause the dire extremes between, He made me blest - and broke my heart.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.