Song
O lady, when the tipped cup of the moon blessed you You became soft fire with a cloud's grace; The difficult stars swam for eyes in your face; You stood, and your shadow was my place: You turned, your shadow turned to ice O my lady. O lady, when the sea caressed you You were a marble of foam, but dumb. When will the stone open its tomb? When will the waves give over their foam? You will not die, nor come home, O my lady. O lady, when the wind kissed you You made him music for you were a shaped shell. I follow the waters and the wind still Since my heart heard it and all to pieces fell Which your lovers stole, meaning ill, O my lady. O lady, consider when I shall have lost you The moon's full hands, scattering waste, The sea's hands, dark from the world's breast, The world's decay where the wind's hands have passed, And my head, worn out with love, at rest In my hands, and my hands full of dust, O my lady.
Song - meaning Summary
Unreachable Beloved, Consuming Grief
The poem presents a speaker overwhelmed by love for an elusive, almost elemental woman. Moonlight, sea, and wind transform her into images of beauty, silence, and music, but she remains beyond his reach. His questions suggest that she is emotionally unavailable, absent, or dead. In the final stanza, personal loss expands into a vision of natural decay and the speaker's own exhaustion.
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