"Alas! is even love too weak / To unlock the heart, and let it speak?"
— Arnold, Matthew (1822-1888)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
B. Fellowes
Date
1852
Metaphor
"Alas! is even love too weak / To unlock the heart, and let it speak?"
Metaphor in Context
Alas! is even love too weak
To unlock the heart, and let it speak?
Are even lovers powerless to reveal
To one another what indeed they feel?
I knew the mass of men conceal'd
Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd
They would by other men be met
With blank indifference, or with blame reproved;
I knew they lived and moved
Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest
Of men, and alien to themselves--and yet
The same heart beats in every human breast!
(ll. 12-23)
To unlock the heart, and let it speak?
Are even lovers powerless to reveal
To one another what indeed they feel?
I knew the mass of men conceal'd
Their thoughts, for fear that if reveal'd
They would by other men be met
With blank indifference, or with blame reproved;
I knew they lived and moved
Trick'd in disguises, alien to the rest
Of men, and alien to themselves--and yet
The same heart beats in every human breast!
(ll. 12-23)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Matthew Arnold, Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. London: B. Fellowes, 1852.<Link to RPO><Link to Victorian Web>
Date of Entry
05/20/2010
