Two Years Later
Has no one said those daring Kind eyes should be more learn'd? Or warned you how despairing The moths are when they are burned? I could have warned you; but you are young, So we speak a different tongue. O you will take whatever's offered And dream that all the world's a friend, Suffer as your mother suffered, Be as broken in the end. But I am old and you are young, And I speak a barbarous tongue.
Two Years Later - meaning Summary
Age and Unshared Language
The poem presents an older speaker addressing a younger person, warning against naive, passionate attachments that lead to suffering. Using the moth-and-flame image and the repeated contrast of youth and age, the voice insists that experience teaches a harsher truth the young cannot yet hear. The speaker predicts the younger will repeat a mother’s fate, taking comfort in illusions while ultimately becoming "broken," and laments their separate, "barbarous" tongues.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.