There Was, Before Me
There Was, Before Me - meaning Summary
Vision Amid Barrenness
The poem contrasts an expansive, hostile landscape with the speaker’s inner vision of a beautiful place and a beloved woman. The speaker can look beyond snow, ice, and burning sand to a shaded, intimate scene; that focused gaze makes everything else disappear. Desire briefly consolidates this private world, but when desire reasserts itself the surrounding desolation returns. The poem explores imagination’s power to transform harsh reality and its fragility under longing.
Read Complete AnalysesThere was, before me, Mile upon mile Of snow, ice, burning sand. And yet I could look beyond all this, To a place of infinite beauty; And I could see the loveliness of her Who walked in the shade of the trees. When I gazed, All was lost But this place of beauty and her. When I gazed, And in my gazing, desired, Then came again Mile upon mile, Of snow, ice, burning sand.
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