He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead
He Wishes His Beloved Were Dead - meaning Summary
Desiring Possession Through Death
The speaker imagines his beloved dead so she will stay with him, offer forgiveness, and allow an intimacy denied in life. Death is portrayed as both limiting and enclosing: it prevents her flight yet entwines her with cosmic images of hair bound around stars and moon. The final image of lying "under the dock-leaves" turns yearning into a desire for possession and peace through absence.
Read Complete AnalysesWere you but lying cold and dead, And lights were paling out of the West, You would come hither, and bend your head, And I would lay my head on your breast; And you would murmur tender words, Forgiving me, because you were dead: Nor would you rise and hasten away, Though you have the will of the wild birds, But know your hair was bound and wound About the stars and moon and sun: O would, beloved, that you lay Under the dock-leaves in the ground, While lights were paling one by one.
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