Can anyone help me understand this poem. I need to do an explicaton paper of it...

Thanks for the help!

Alicia, he's talking about mesmerism, or hypnotism, if you will. A few points from the poem:

1. In the first several stanzas he's calling forth his lover's spirit from his room.

2. Then he describes her following his own dream's desires.

3. She materializes as he has wished by his will.

4. Lastly he wonders if there is a penalty for imposing his will upon her.

*A note: Many people in the 19th century believed that mesmerism, named for the man who described the phenomenon, was nothing more than "animal magnetism". That it was this animal nature of man which attracted people to them, like modern day "zombies".


Les



Post Edited (03-15-05 13:15)

Interesting stanza choice. Rhymes are abbaa, the reverse of the limerick form aabba. The short, 3-2-2-3-3 mix of (mostly) iambic & anapestic feet seem to build a rising tension in each stanza, giving a breathless feel to the whole thing. Is he abracadabra-ing up the spirit of a woman?


All I believed is true!
I am able yet
All I want, to get
By a method as strange as new:
Dare I trust the same to you?

If at night, when doors are shut,
And the wood-worm picks,
And the death-watch ticks,
And the bar has a flag of smut,
And a cats in the water-butt-- <br /> <br /> And the socket floats and flares,<br /> And the house-beams groan,<br /> And a foot unknown<br /> Is surmised on the garret-stairs,<br /> And the locks slip unawares--<br /> <br /> And the spider, to serve his ends,<br /> By a sudden thread,<br /> Arms and legs outspread,<br /> On the tables midst descends,
Comes to find, God knows what friends!--

If since eve drew in, I say,
I have sat and brought
(So to speak) my thought
To bear on the woman away,
Till I felt my hair turn grey--

Till I seemed to have and hold,
In the vacancy
Twixt the wall and me,<br /> From the hair-plaits chestnut gold
To the foot in its muslin fold--

Have and hold, then and there,
Her, from head to foot
Breathing and mute,
Passive and yet aware,
In the grasp of my steady stare--

Hold and have, there and then,
All her body and soul
That completes my whole,
All that women add to men,
In the clutch of my steady ken--

Having and holding, till
I imprint her fast
On the void at last
As the sun does whom he will
By the calotypists skill--<br /> <br /> Then,--if my hearts strength serve,
And through all and each
Of the veils I reach
To her soul and never swerve,
Knitting an iron nerve--

Command her soul to advance
And inform the shape
Which has made escape
And before my countenance
Answers me glance for glance--

I, still with a gesture fit
Of my hands that best
Do my soul`s behest,
Pointing the power from it,
While myself do steadfast sit--

Steadfast and still the same
On my object bent,
While the hands give vent
To my ardour and my aim
And break into very flame--

Then I reach, I must believe,
Not her soul in vain,
For to me again
It reaches, and past retrieve
Is wound in the toils I weave;

And must follow as I require,
As befits a thrall,
Bringing flesh and all,
Essence and earth-attire
To the source of the tractile fire:

Till the house called hers, not mine,
With a growing weight
Seems to suffocate
If she break not its leaden line
And escape from its close confine.

Out of doors into the night!
On to the maze
Of the wild wood-ways,
Not turning to left nor right

From the pathway, blind with sight--

Making throrain and wind<br /> Oer the broken shrubs,
Twixt the stems and stubs,<br /> With a still, composed, strong mind,<br /> Nor a care for the world behind-- <br /> <br /> Swifter and still more swift,<br /> As the crowding peace<br /> Doth to joy increase<br /> In the wide blind eyes uplift<br /> Thro the darkness and the drift!

While I--to the shape, I too
Feel my soul dilate
Nor a whit abate,
And relax not a gesture due,
As I see my belief come true.

For, there! have I drawn or no
Life to that lip?
Do my fingers dip
In a flame which again they throw
On the cheek that breaks a-glow?

Ha! was the hair so first?
What, unfilleted,
Made alive, and spread
Through the void with a rich outburst,
Chestnut gold-interspersed?

Like the doors of a casket-shrine,
See, on either side,
Her two arms divide
Till the heart betwixt makes sign,
Take me, for I am thine!

"Now--now"--the door is heard!
Hark, the stairs! and near--
Nearer--and here--
"Now!" and at call the third
She enters without a word.

On doth she march and on
To the fancied shape;
It is, past escape,
Herself, now: the dream is done
And the shadow and she are one.

First I will pray. Do Thou
That ownest the soul,
Yet wilt grant control
To another, nor disallow
For a time, restrain me now!

I admonish me while I may,
Not to squander guilt,
Since require Thou wilt
At my hand its price one day!
What the price is, who can say?