Consolation
Consolation - meaning Summary
Comfort Against Fatalism
The poem presents a speaker who seeks a temporary respite to hear traditional wisdom about consolation. It contrasts abstract sage-advice with bodily needs and intimacy, then raises a dark thought: that existence itself may be a stigmatizing "crime." The closing line suggests that guilt or condemnation is tied to place or act and so can be alleviated. Overall it frames comfort as something promised by wisdom but made urgent by human vulnerability.
Read Complete AnalysesO but there is wisdom In what the sages said; But stretch that body for a while And lay down that head Till I have told the sages Where man is comforted. How could passion run so deep Had I never thought That the crime of being born Blackens all our lot? But where the crime's committed The crime can be forgot.
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