Open the Door to Me Oh
written in 1793
Open the Door to Me Oh - meaning Summary
A Plea at a Door
The poem is a brief tragic narrative in which a speaker pleads at a lover’s door for pity and entry despite past betrayal. He contrasts the physical cold and the emotional chill of her indifference, frames his decline against a setting moon and the passage of time, and renounces false friends and love. The final stanza delivers a grim revelation: she opens the door to find his lifeless body on the plain. Her exclamation and collapse beside him complete a fatal, mutual devastation, turning a plea for mercy into a scene of death and mourning.
Read Complete AnalysesOh, open the door, some pity to shew, If love it may na be, Oh; Tho' thou hast been false, I'll ever prove true, Oh, open the door to me, Oh. Cauld is the blast upon my pale cheek, But caulder thy love for me, Oh: The frost that freezes the life at my heart, Is nought to my pains frae thee, Oh. The wan Moon is setting beyond the white wave, And time is setting with me, Oh: False friends, false love, farewell! for mair I'll ne'er trouble them, nor thee, Oh. She has open'd the door, she has open'd it wide, She sees the pale corse on the plain, Oh: My true love! she cried, and sank down by his side, Never to rise again, Oh.
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