Scribd
Upload
119 views1 page

Isolation: To Marguerite Analysis

The poem describes the speaker's isolation after his love for Marguerite ended. He had hoped their love would grow stronger each day, but he was wrong - her love faded while his remained constant. Now alone with only nature for company, the speaker's heart feels shame for having opened itself to the pain of lost love. Though surrounded by the changing of the seasons and lives of others, the speaker remains isolated in the knowledge that true union with another is impossible to achieve.

Uploaded by

Gabriela Frederick
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
119 views1 page

Isolation: To Marguerite Analysis

The poem describes the speaker's isolation after his love for Marguerite ended. He had hoped their love would grow stronger each day, but he was wrong - her love faded while his remained constant. Now alone with only nature for company, the speaker's heart feels shame for having opened itself to the pain of lost love. Though surrounded by the changing of the seasons and lives of others, the speaker remains isolated in the knowledge that true union with another is impossible to achieve.

Uploaded by

Gabriela Frederick
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Isolation: To Marguerite by Matthew Arnold

We were apart; yet, day by day,


I bade my heart more constant be.
I bade it keep the world away,
And grow a home for only thee;
Nor fear'd but thy love likewise grew,
Like mine, each day, more tried, more true.

The fault was grave! I might have known,
What far too soon, alas! I learn'd
The heart can bind itself alone,
And faith may oft be unreturn'd.
Self-sway'd our feelings ebb and swell
Thou lov'st no more;Farewell! Farewell!

Farewell!and thou, thou lonely heart,
Which never yet without remorse
Even for a moment didst depart
From thy remote and spherd course
To haunt the place where passions reign
Back to thy solitude again!

Back! with the conscious thrill of shame
Which Luna felt, that summer-night,
Flash through her pure immortal frame,
When she forsook the starry height
To hang over Endymion's sleep
Upon the pine-grown Latmian steep.

Yet she, chaste queen, had never proved
How vain a thing is mortal love,
Wandering in Heaven, far removed.
But thou hast long had place to prove
This truthto prove, and make thine own:
"Thou hast been, shalt be, art, alone."

Or, if not quite alone, yet they
Which touch thee are unmating things
Ocean and clouds and night and day;
Lorn autumns and triumphant springs;
And life, and others' joy and pain,
And love, if love, of happier men.

Of happier menfor they, at least,
Have dream'd two human hearts might blend
In one, and were through faith released
From isolation without end
Prolong'd; nor knew, although not less
Alone than thou, their loneliness.

You might also like