King and No King
King and No King - meaning Summary
Promises Become Mere Voice
The speaker reflects on promises and the fragility of spoken vows. A man who becomes king is dismissed as having only "voice," while the speaker mourns a lost trust born of a momentary promise and ordinary daily kindnesses. The poem contrasts public power or dramatic declarations with the quiet, habitual commitments that sustain relationships, asking whether such modest, everyday fidelity survives beyond life and memory.
Read Complete Analyses'Would it were anything but merely voice!' The No King cried who after that was King, Because he had not heard of anything That balanced with a word is more than noise; Yet Old Romance being kind, let him prevail Somewhere or somehow that I have forgot, Though he'd but cannon - Whereas we that had thought To have lit upon as clean and sweet a tale Have been defeated by that pledge you gave In momentary anger long ago; And I that have not your faith, how shall I know That in the blinding light beyond the grave We'll find so good a thing as that we have lost? The hourly kindness, the day's common speech. The habitual content of each with each Men neither soul nor body has been crossed.
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