He Hears the Cry of the Sedge
He Hears the Cry of the Sedge - meaning Summary
Longing Postponed Until Apocalypse
The speaker wanders a desolate lakeshore where wind in the sedge voices a sorrowful refrain. Using cosmic and apocalyptic images—the axle keeping stars, banners hurled, girdle of light unbound—the poem links personal longing to a universal disruption. The beloved’s physical union is deferred not by ordinary obstacles but until the world’s order breaks down, giving the poem a resigned, fatalistic tone about thwarted love and impossible timing.
Read Complete AnalysesI wander by the edge Of this desolate lake Where wind cries in the sedge: Until the axle break That keeps the stars in their round, And hands hurl in the deep The banners of East and West, And the girdle of light is unhound, Your breast will not lie by the breast Of your beloved in sleep.
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