A Deep Sworn Vow
A Deep Sworn Vow - meaning Summary
Absence Returns as Vision
The speaker addresses a past lover whose broken oath has allowed others to take their place yet remains powerfully present. In moments of danger, solitude, sleep, or intoxication the beloved's face intrudes, showing how memory and desire persist despite outward separation. The poem explores how inner life—fear, ecstasy, vulnerability—revives a lost intimacy that social reality cannot erase.
Read Complete AnalysesOthers because you did not keep That deep-sworn vow have been friends of mine; Yet always when I look death in the face, When I clamber to the heights of sleep, Or when I grow excited with wine, Suddenly I meet your face.
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