Parlour-piece
With love so like fire they dared not Let it out into strawy small talk; With love so like a flood they dared not Let out a trickle lest the whole crack, These two sat speechlessly: Pale cool tea in tea-cups chaperoned Stillness, silence, the eyes Where fire and flood strained.
love
lyric poem
tense
Parlour-piece - meaning Summary
Passion Contained by Silence
The poem presents a couple whose feelings are too intense to express casually. Their love is imagined as both fire and flood: forces that could become destructive if released. As they sit silently over tea, ordinary social rituals contain their tension, but their eyes reveal the emotion struggling beneath the surface. The poem suggests that silence can hold passion, fear, and vulnerability at once.
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