Fast Anchor’d, Eternal, O Love
Fast Anchor’d, Eternal, O Love - meaning Summary
Love as Transcendent Union
Whitman celebrates love as an enduring, transpersonal force that consoles and elevates the self. Addressing both woman and man, the speaker names companionship as irresistibly vital and suggests that even if bodies part, love persists in a disembodied, spiritual form. The poem frames love as the last "athletic reality," a sustaining, active truth that enables ascent and continuity across physical separation, tying intimacy to consolation and transcendence.
Read Complete AnalysesFAST-ANCHOR’D, eternal, O love! O woman I love! O bride! O wife! more resistless than I can tell, the thought of you! —Then separate, as disembodied, or another born, Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation; I ascend—I float in the regions of your love, O man, O sharer of my roving life.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.