How Sweet I Roam'd
How Sweet I Roam'd - meaning Summary
Freedom Entangled with Desire
Blake's poem narrates a speaker who roams freely through summer pleasures until seduced by a charming figure who offers beauty and delight. Those pleasures become a trap: the speaker is caught in a gilded constraint, displayed and mocked despite continued song. The poem contrasts sensual enjoyment with loss of liberty, suggesting how attraction and patronage can transform freedom into captivity, a recurring Blakean tension between innocence and control.
Read Complete AnalysesHow sweet I roam'd from field to field, And tasted all the summer's pride 'Til the prince of love beheld Who in the sunny beams did glide! He shew'd me lilies for my hair And blushing roses for my brow; He led me through his garden fair, Where all his golden pleasures grow. With sweet May dews my wings were wet, And Phoebus fir'd my vocal rage He caught me in his silken net, And shut me in his golden cage. He loves to sit and hear me sing, Then, laughing, sports and plays with me; Then stretches out my golden wing, And mocks my loss of liberty.
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