Silent, Silent Night
Silent, Silent Night - meaning Summary
Joy's Dangerous Duplicity
The poem addresses night as a force that should extinguish light to prevent day’s wandering spirits from corrupting pleasure. It contrasts false, deceptive joys with a rarer, “honest” joy that paradoxically ends itself through an encounter with a coy harlot. The speaker reflects on the instability and moral risk of pleasure, suggesting that sweetness often conceals deceit while even genuine happiness is vulnerable to self-destruction or temptation.
Read Complete AnalysesSilent, silent night, Quench the holy light Of thy torches bright; For possessed of Day Thousand spirits stray That sweet joys betray. Why should joys be sweet Used with deceit, Nor with sorrows meet? But an honest joy Does itself destroy For a harlot coy.
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