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Comment 10 of 10, added on August 6th, 2006 at 9:42 PM.
Death could be the mysterious figure. Regret is powerful, especially if the rejected man is left bitter, confused, heart-broken,...Death just adds another interesting component to play with. Never tell your love becomes even more heightened when it has been told, it didn't work out, and the person has died--all without an opportunity to try to win the person back. The beauty of this possibility is that, althought the poet "claims" never tell your love, PERHAPS he still wants her, despite the rejection, despite her being taken by another...BUT if the other person is DEAD, there is no more trying. He is forced to just live with the memory of her, his broken heart, and try to move on. Her power over his heart would still be extended from the grave. Haunting, isn't it
(A sort of Wuthering Heights moment).
dallas from United States
Comment 9 of 10, added on August 1st, 2006 at 1:20 AM.
Here is a slightly different interpretation of this poem I came at by looking at some slightly modern principles of psychology. Maybe this has been discussed before?
Anyway the poem... I think This is all about how the process of attraction works between people. The first line gives some advice to "never seek to tell thy love", partly because it is impossible to describe love, but also because of something to do with the process of attraction, which is the basis of where romantic love starts.
What makes someone romantically attractive? What are the qualities in a man that are most likely to fascinate, intrigue and attract a woman? Confidence, competence, personality, independence of mind and spirit, frame of mind, clear intent, etc.? These are all part of it, but certainly not neediness, being clingy, dependence, etc. The idea of a commitment may not scare a person away, but the idea of someone being "attached" to them, declaring undying love, wanting and needing, they are all turn-offs, especially for a woman in the early stages of developing a relationship.
The psychology behind attraction is more about what the person does not have (and thus has to strive to get it) rather than the idea of promising that person everything where they don't have to work to have it. It is the idea of the first person being the "prize" and the second person realising it and being attracted, rather than the first person trying to "win over" the second with statements of love.
Even though it is honest and true, stating one's love like this can be perceived as a sign of neediness and being clingy, which is not very attractive. Of course, once you know the other person loves you too, then you can start sharing your deepest feelings of attachment, but not until then.
So my interpretation is that in this story, the couple in question may only be courting around their romantic interest very early on in a relationship, but the male in the story foolishly states his love in a far too pathetic way, especially with "Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears", this is pretty wimpy. Of course this turns her off and she leaves. It is also likely to be seen as manipulative because, although it seems straight and honest, stating your love to someone like this may be seen to be as much a statement of what you want as what you feel for them. It is showing you want to give so you can then take. It is more attractive to "share" rather than to "give so you can take and take so you can give"
The poem says "For the gentle wind doth move Silently, invisibly", meaning that love, attraction, or that chemistry, is an invisible thing, hard to define, but can come without being preempted... in fact, more to the point, it is far less likely to come when pre-empted. It is far more likely to be there when the people are being natural, showing their personalities, demonstrating awareness of sex and intimacy, sharing of themselves, etc. than if they are trying to achieve something, with the intent of "taking" or having the other person.
When a person exhibits the qualities that make someone attractive, and if this woman sees that in the person, she will be swept away with very little effort on the part of the traveller. Here I am referring to the traveller as another man, not death, although death is a completely different interpretation of the poem.
In fact, from my analysis... I do wonder how Blake could have meant death here because, what is the point of using death as the traveller in this poem when the woman has already rejected the man. Death may take her, but if it is after she rejects him, what is the point? On the other hand, if we look at the traveller as another man, then the poem all fits together in terms of the attraction issue and how the silent wind wins in the end... so there is more drama in this interpretation. If the traveller is another man, then the traveller gets what it is that the first man wanted, and there is a reason for that. Whereas in the case of death, death is not taking her for the same things and reasons for why and what the first man wanted her for. That is, death does not take for love, it takes anyway in the end.
If you are confident, show your personality, show you are a good prize, but don't try too hard, don't be wimpy, show interest but don't state your life as being dependent on the other person, in other words, if you are cool.... then you will be like the wind that can take someone with a sigh.
Does the man realise this truth in the poem? Or is it a narrative of what has happened, the man trying to work it out, but with Blake giving us all we need in the poem to see the truth behind why it did not work out for this man, and the truth behind how powerful emotional responses to personality are as opposed to responses to wimpy statements of love too early in the interaction.
If I am right about this poem, then it is truly about love's secret, because this stuff about attraction is quite a secret as most people do not get it. I may be wrong about the poem, and I also may be wrong about my ideas of romantic love and attraction... my ideas may be far too generalised, but I think it is interesting all the same.
Mat from Australia
Comment 8 of 10, added on July 18th, 2006 at 12:52 PM.
This reads like a poem of experience. In real life, Blake did have his heart broken. His marriage proposal was turned down; in sharing this story with his future wife, Catherine, and her family, supposedly Catherine remarked that it was a shame that such a thing happened. Blake was touched by Catherine's comment, asked her if she "pitied" him (a virtue of that time period), then asked her to marry him.
Anyone that has had their heart broken can feel the weight of this poem. Rejection cuts on so many levels, and in this poem, it seems that further regret was added. The traveller could be death, or as someone suggested, fate dressed as another lover.
"I told", is stressed three times in stanza three. I get the image of him sitting on a chair, just trying to figure out what he could have done wrong. On the one hand, he was honest with who he was, and apparently didn't play any games; yet on the other, he seems to struggle with the level of truth itself--if he was so honest, why did she reject him?
I don't really feel the pain of the woman that left him. What I do feel is that for some reason, she felt he was not the one for her. Was she gentle in her rejection of him? Perhaps the "silently invisible" is one indication that she was. We know that she was not physically gone from him right away--or was she? "Soon as she was gone from me a traveller came by." Was the traveller already in the picture, and perhaps the man misunderstood her all along? Did she love him as much as he loved her? Perhaps he was so intense with his love that he scared her away? She was perfect in "his eyes", but he was lacking something in hers. She left.
After such an intense love, it must have been very difficult to trust again. Here the reasoning becomes "never tell thy love". Always hold back; protect your heart. The bitterness, the confusion, the hurt that is conveyed in just the usage of these few words!
The poem does make me wonder about the final parting with his love. When the traveller took her "with a sigh", was he a witness? Was the sigh just like, um, ok, let's go? Was it death? Was it an interpretation from a bitter man that this new lover didn't love her the way he did? Instead of being enraptured by her, the traveller leaves with a sigh. Perhaps the new lover's motives are being read correctly by the rejected lover. Perhaps the traveller will "dump" her--just like she dumped him.
This is a great poem because the story does have many levels to it. On the one hand it can be read as a man in pain, and on the other, it is a deeper picture of what love can do to people.
What I also like about this is that the poem reflects the pain of the man. I think it is so easy to forget that men do feel deep loss.
dallas
Comment 7 of 10, added on May 4th, 2006 at 8:59 AM.
Ah, good analysis.
I'm supposing that 'Wind' is fate in this sense...due to the fact that his love is dead? I'm probably wrong though...
ame
Comment 6 of 10, added on February 9th, 2006 at 6:30 PM.
i think it means tht she was afraid of commitment and when her lover told her of his plans she was afraidand left him for a man who has no roots and most likely no thought as to settling down at tht moment
LAuren from United States
Comment 5 of 10, added on September 18th, 2005 at 7:43 AM.
I have always loved this poem as one about predestined love and fate. She refused someone who is an ardent lover and followed someone who attracted her by merely a sigh. This tells love's caprice nature. And love is enticing because it's so unpredictable. What do you think?
Mayline from China
Comment 4 of 10, added on August 15th, 2005 at 7:32 PM.
I am analysing this poem at the moment for English literature, and i found that it was more about death itself than free love; the traveller is Death. I am trying to work out what the wind is metaphoric for, however, because there is an obvious connection between the traveller and the wind. The Traveller takes her with a 'sigh', referring back to the wind. any ideas??
chelsea from Australia
Comment 3 of 10, added on July 12th, 2005 at 6:53 PM.
Beautiful... and quite true.
Fred from United States
Comment 2 of 10, added on June 3rd, 2005 at 8:31 PM.
captures blake's view on free love perfectly
jodie from United Kingdom
Comment 1 of 10, added on December 23rd, 2004 at 4:47 PM.
its just beautiful.. stupendo e magnifico.
BlackMutter from Italy
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.
Death could be the mysterious figure. Regret is powerful, especially if the rejected man is left bitter, confused, heart-broken,...Death just adds another interesting component to play with. Never tell your love becomes even more heightened when it has been told, it didn't work out, and the person has died--all without an opportunity to try to win the person back. The beauty of this possibility is that, althought the poet "claims" never tell your love, PERHAPS he still wants her, despite the rejection, despite her being taken by another...BUT if the other person is DEAD, there is no more trying. He is forced to just live with the memory of her, his broken heart, and try to move on. Her power over his heart would still be extended from the grave. Haunting, isn't it
(A sort of Wuthering Heights moment).
dallas from United States