To a Lock of Hair
To a Lock of Hair - meaning Summary
Love's Corrective Influence
The speaker addresses a lock of hair as a preserved token of Agnes Scott and imagines its unchanged purity proving her moral influence. He confesses a violent, restless temperament—chasing worldly pleasures like a hunt—and suggests that Agnes’s love would have tamed his pride, soothed his anger, and kept him from wandering. The poem is a regretful meditation on what her sustaining affection might have done for his character and life.
Read Complete AnalysesThy hue, dear pledge, is pure and bright As in that well; remember'd night When first thy mystic braid was wove, And first my Agnes whisper'd love. Since then how often hast thou prest The torrid zone of this wild breast, Whose wrath and hate have sworn to dwell With the first sin that peopled hell; A breast whose blood's a troubled ocean, Each throb the earthquake's wild commotion! O if such clime thou canst endure Yet keep thy hue unstain'd and pure, What conquest o'er each erring thought Of that fierce realm had Agnes wrought! I had not wander'd far and wide With such an angel for my guide; Nor heaven nor earth could then reprove me If she had lived and lived to love me. Not then this world's wild joys had been To me one savage hunting scene, My sole delight the headlong race And frantic hurry of the chase; To start, pursue, and bring to bay, Rush in, drag down, and rend my prey, Then; from the carcass turn away! Mine ireful mood had sweetness tamed, And soothed each wound which pride inflamed: - Yes, God and man might now approve me If thou hadst lived and lived to love me!
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