FatimaFirst printed in 1833.The 1833 edition has no title but this quotation from Sappho prefixed:—φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θεοῖσινἜμμεν ἀνήρ.—SAPPHO.The title was prefixed in 1842; it is a name taken fromThe Arabian Nightsor from the Moallâkat. The poem was evidently inspired by Sappho’s great ode.Cf.also Fragment I. of Ibycus. In the intensity of the passion it stands alone among Tennyson’s poems.O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!O sun, that from[1]thy noonday heightShudderest when I strain my sight,Throbbing thro’ all thy heat and light,Lo, falling from my constant mind,Lo, parch’d and wither’d, deaf and blind,I whirl like leaves in roaring wind.Last night I wasted hateful hoursBelow the city’s eastern towers:I thirsted for the brooks, the showers:I roll’d among the tender flowers:I crush’d them on my breast, my mouth:I look’d athwart the burning drouthOf that long desert to the south.[2]Last night, when some one spoke his name,[3]From my swift blood that went and cameA thousand little shafts of flame.Were shiver’d in my narrow frameO Love, O fire! once he drewWith one long kiss, my whole soul thro’My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.[4]>Before he mounts the hill, I knowHe cometh quickly: from belowSweet gales, as from deep gardens, blowBefore him, striking on my brow.In my dry brain my spirit soon,Down-deepening from swoon to swoon,Faints like a dazzled morning moon.The wind sounds like a silver wire,And from beyond the noon a fireIs pour’d upon the hills, and nigherThe skies stoop down in their desire;And, isled in sudden seas of light,My heart, pierced thro’ with fierce delight,Bursts into blossom in his sight.My whole soul waiting silently,All naked in a sultry sky,Droops blinded with his shining eye:Iwillpossess him or will die.I will grow round him in his place,Grow, live, die looking on his face,Die, dying clasp’d in his embrace.[1]1833. At.[2]This stanza was added in 1842.[3]Cf.Byron,Occasional Pieces:—They name thee before meA knell to mine ear,A shudder comes o’er me,Why wert thou so dear?[4]Cf,Achilles Tatius,Clitophon and Leucippe, bk. i., I: ἡδε (ψυχή) ταραχθεῖσα τῷ φιλήματι πάλλεται, εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ἦν δεδεμένη ἠκολούθησεν ἄν ἑλκυθεῖσα ἄνω τοῖς φιλήμασιν(Her soul, distracted by the kiss, throbs, and had it not been close bound by the flesh would have followed, drawn upward by the kisses.)
First printed in 1833.
The 1833 edition has no title but this quotation from Sappho prefixed:—
φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θεοῖσινἜμμεν ἀνήρ.—SAPPHO.
The title was prefixed in 1842; it is a name taken fromThe Arabian Nightsor from the Moallâkat. The poem was evidently inspired by Sappho’s great ode.Cf.also Fragment I. of Ibycus. In the intensity of the passion it stands alone among Tennyson’s poems.
O Love, Love, Love! O withering might!O sun, that from[1]thy noonday heightShudderest when I strain my sight,Throbbing thro’ all thy heat and light,Lo, falling from my constant mind,Lo, parch’d and wither’d, deaf and blind,I whirl like leaves in roaring wind.Last night I wasted hateful hoursBelow the city’s eastern towers:I thirsted for the brooks, the showers:I roll’d among the tender flowers:I crush’d them on my breast, my mouth:I look’d athwart the burning drouthOf that long desert to the south.[2]Last night, when some one spoke his name,[3]From my swift blood that went and cameA thousand little shafts of flame.Were shiver’d in my narrow frameO Love, O fire! once he drewWith one long kiss, my whole soul thro’My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.[4]>Before he mounts the hill, I knowHe cometh quickly: from belowSweet gales, as from deep gardens, blowBefore him, striking on my brow.In my dry brain my spirit soon,Down-deepening from swoon to swoon,Faints like a dazzled morning moon.The wind sounds like a silver wire,And from beyond the noon a fireIs pour’d upon the hills, and nigherThe skies stoop down in their desire;And, isled in sudden seas of light,My heart, pierced thro’ with fierce delight,Bursts into blossom in his sight.My whole soul waiting silently,All naked in a sultry sky,Droops blinded with his shining eye:Iwillpossess him or will die.I will grow round him in his place,Grow, live, die looking on his face,Die, dying clasp’d in his embrace.
[1]1833. At.
[2]This stanza was added in 1842.
[3]Cf.Byron,Occasional Pieces:—They name thee before meA knell to mine ear,A shudder comes o’er me,Why wert thou so dear?
[4]Cf,Achilles Tatius,Clitophon and Leucippe, bk. i., I: ἡδε (ψυχή) ταραχθεῖσα τῷ φιλήματι πάλλεται, εἰ δὲ μὴ τοῖς σπλάγχνοις ἦν δεδεμένη ἠκολούθησεν ἄν ἑλκυθεῖσα ἄνω τοῖς φιλήμασιν(Her soul, distracted by the kiss, throbs, and had it not been close bound by the flesh would have followed, drawn upward by the kisses.)