A Man Young and Old: 1. First Love
A Man Young and Old: 1. First Love - meaning Summary
Love's Disillusioning Encounter
The poem describes a speaker’s early infatuation that transforms into disillusion. He idealizes a woman as luminous and celestial, then discovers her heart is metaphorically stone. That revelation leaves him inert and altered: attempts to act fail and he wanders in aimless speech. Recurrent moon imagery links beauty, madness, and emotional distance, portraying love as both elevating and paralysing when the beloved proves unresponsive.
Read Complete AnalysesThough nurtured like the sailing moon In beauty's murderous brood, She walked awhile and blushed awhile And on my pathway stood Until I thought her body bore A heart of flesh and blood. But since I laid a hand thereon And found a heart of stone I have attempted many things And not a thing is done, For every hand is lunatic That travels on the moon. She smiled and that transfigured me And left me but a lout, Maundering here, and maundering there, Emptier of thought Than the heavenly circuit of its stars When the moon sails out.
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