A First Confession
A First Confession - meaning Summary
Confession of Coquettish Contradiction
The poem presents a speaker confessing childish affectations and self-deception. She admits minor falsities—feigning injury, coquettish tremors—to attract male attention, while also asserting a desire for truth. The voice exposes a conflict between honest selfhood and performative desire, framed with natural and cosmic images (a briar, the Zodiac). The closing lines reveal anxiety about being judged or shunned when the speaker’s inner emptiness meets others’ scrutiny.
Read Complete AnalysesI admit the briar Entangled in my hair Did not injure me; My blenching and trembling, Nothing but dissembling, Nothing but coquetry. I long for truth, and yet I cannot stay from that My better self disowns, For a man's attention Brings such satisfaction To the craving in my bones. Brightness that I pull back From the Zodiac, Why those questioning eyes That are fixed upon me? What can they do but shun me If empty night replies?
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