Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love
The poem Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love is a 20th century poem written by W.H Auden. It is based on modern frustration,depression,infidelity.The poet expresses anxiety of the lover but still he has liking for his beloved. The look at the head of the beloved arouses a sense of temporary love towards the beloved. Man is usually busy with the fever and fret of the busy life of the modern world. There is a sudden offer made to his to his sleeping beloved that she may take rest on his arms for some time till the morning but she cannot rely on this arm.
The poem opens with an extended metaphor for peace. Auden suggests that sensual and carnal love is an irrational torment but when it takes places the two lover become one immediately after the the trials and tribulation of the day. The lovers find the peaceful evening which is further followed by their sensual serenity. The lovers become mature. The human life on this world is transient and ephemeral but till the lover offers his arms till break of day so that the beloved may take rest. Being a human being a lover has the sense of mortality and guilt.
The poet says that as the two lovers become one, their soul and body are not bound by any limitation or restriction. They are in kind of swoon. They have the vision of grave. This the time when the lovers has the vision of Venus. There is no longer the personification of vanity. Even the lust is released. There is certain awakening within the lovers expressed in the form of hermit, ecstasy and happiness. Thus the goddess of Venus provides a vision of grave which reflect the vision of ‘Super Natural Sympathy' and 'Universal Love'.
In the following stanza, the poet strike at clock at 12 o'clock at midnight. There is a sense of certainty and fidelity as the bell rings the feelings fade away into the night as a illusion to the death knoll. The poet further says that after the bell rings there shall not be a whisper and not a thought that can be lost.
The poet expresses his anxiety that the arrival of the midnight the vision vanishes. The lovers move towards dawn. They find the mortal world. Once again, the dryness of the noon’s and the insulation in the life of human being the poet is unable to understand how lovers arm became faithless. The lover does not refer to an act of betrayal against his beloved.Venus,the goddess of love also talks about considers hermits,carnal,ecstasy.The life continues like the card game, moving towards the graveyard and everything is going to pass away.
W.H Auden’s poem Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love is a sensational love poem in an age of anxiety where the lover’s unite and heavenly pleasure by the grace of Venus but she provides the vision of grave which arouses the glaciers and the rocks within that makes the hermit extremely happy. The poet further describe the different stages of day, noon and night etc.The poem is divided into four stanzas. The poem is highly passionate and intellectual.
Lay your sleeping head, my love, Human on my faithless arm; Time and fevers burn away Individual beauty from Thoughtful children, and the grave Proves the child ephemeral: But in my arms till break of day Let the living creature lie, Mortal, guilty, but to me The entirely beautiful. Soul and body have no bounds: To lovers as they lie upon Her tolerant enchanted slope In their ordinary swoon, Grave the vision Venus sends Of supernatural sympathy, Universal love and hope; While an abstract insight wakes Among the glaciers and the rocks The hermit’s carnal ecstasy. Certainty, fidelity On the stroke of midnight pass Like vibrations of a bell, And fashionable madmen raise Their pedantic boring cry: Every farthing of the cost, All the dreaded cards foretell, Shall be paid, but from this night Not a whisper, not a thought, Not a kiss nor look be lost.
Beauty, midnight, vision dies:
Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of welcome show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find the mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness find you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love.
The poem Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love is a 20th century poem written by W.H Auden. It is based on modern frustration,depression,infidelity.The poet expresses anxiety of the lover but still he has liking for his beloved. The look at the head of the beloved arouses a sense of temporary love towards the beloved. Man is usually busy with the fever and fret of the busy life of the modern world. There is a sudden offer made to his to his sleeping beloved that she may take rest on his arms for some time till the morning but she cannot rely on this arm.
The poem opens with an extended metaphor for peace. Auden suggests that sensual and carnal love is an irrational torment but when it takes places the two lover become one immediately after the the trials and tribulation of the day. The lovers find the peaceful evening which is further followed by their sensual serenity. The lovers become mature. The human life on this world is transient and ephemeral but till the lover offers his arms till break of day so that the beloved may take rest. Being a human being a lover has the sense of mortality and guilt.
The poet says that as the two lovers become one, their soul and body are not bound by any limitation or restriction. They are in kind of swoon. They have the vision of grave. This the time when the lovers has the vision of Venus. There is no longer the personification of vanity. Even the lust is released. There is certain awakening within the lovers expressed in the form of hermit, ecstasy and happiness. Thus the goddess of Venus provides a vision of grave which reflect the vision of ‘Super Natural Sympathy' and 'Universal Love'.
In the following stanza, the poet strike at clock at 12 o'clock at midnight. There is a sense of certainty and fidelity as the bell rings the feelings fade away into the night as a illusion to the death knoll. The poet further says that after the bell rings there shall not be a whisper and not a thought that can be lost.
The poet expresses his anxiety that the arrival of the midnight the vision vanishes. The lovers move towards dawn. They find the mortal world. Once again, the dryness of the noon’s and the insulation in the life of human being the poet is unable to understand how lovers arm became faithless. The lover does not refer to an act of betrayal against his beloved.Venus,the goddess of love also talks about considers hermits,carnal,ecstasy.The life continues like the card game, moving towards the graveyard and everything is going to pass away.
W.H Auden’s poem Lay Your Sleeping Head My Love is a sensational love poem in an age of anxiety where the lover’s unite and heavenly pleasure by the grace of Venus but she provides the vision of grave which arouses the glaciers and the rocks within that makes the hermit extremely happy. The poet further describe the different stages of day, noon and night etc.The poem is divided into four stanzas. The poem is highly passionate and intellectual.
nyc one
ReplyDeletegood one.
ReplyDeleteLovely
ReplyDeleteThis one helped me a lot
ReplyDeleteYou're explaining an English poem with absolute incorrect English grammar! Wow!
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