Peace
Peace - meaning Summary
Calm Alters Heroic Appearance
The speaker imagines an idealized, Homeric form—stern, delicate, and heroic—that painters would celebrate. He wonders whether a life free of storms would preserve that noble appearance. The poem then quietly reverses the fantasy: time and the peace it brings have already altered her features. Rather than loss, the change suggests a softening from heroic tension to calm maturity, reframing beauty as the effect of lived experience.
Read Complete AnalysesAh, that Time could touch a form That could show what Homer's age Bred to be a hero's wage. 'Were not all her life but storm Would not painters paint a form Of such noble lines,' I said, 'Such a delicate high head, All that sternness amid charm, All that sweetness amid strength?' Ah, but peace that comes at length, Came when Time had touched her form.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.