O Hymen! O Hymenee!
O Hymen! O Hymenee! - meaning Summary
Longing for Sustained Bliss
The speaker addresses Hymen, personifying sexual or marital ecstasy, and complains that its pleasure arrives only briefly. He asks why the rapture tantalizes him for a swift moment then stops, expressing both longing for its continuation and a morbid awareness that prolonged intensity might be fatal. The poem compresses urgent desire, frustration, and the paradox of pleasure so overwhelming it threatens life.
Read Complete AnalysesO HYMEN! O hymenee! Why do you tantalize me thus? O why sting me for a swift moment only? Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease? Is it because, if you continued beyond the swift moment, you would soon certainly kill me? 5
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