Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

In Anna Elisabeth Mathieu de Noailles' "The Kiss," the fleeting nature of love is portrayed through evocative imagery and symbolism that mirrors the impermanence inherent in life's seasons. De Noailles captures the urgency and volatility of human passion, contrasting it with natural processes, to highlight both its beauty and its inevitable decay.

The poem begins by exhorting "sweet, fervent couples" to love "as the days fashion," setting the stage for the impermanence that will be a recurring theme. The elements-"shadow, song, perfume, and light"-are invoked to suggest that love, like nature, is a combination of tangible and intangible forces. They "bind and unbind passion," encapsulating love's paradoxical ability to both unite and separate.

The imagery of the wind and branches serves to illustrate love's capriciousness. "The wind that mingles the branches or parts them / Has less sudden play / Than the desire of beings that starts them / One to the next, and away." These lines emphasize the transient quality of human connection. The wind may cause branches to intertwine for a moment, but its changeable nature will just as quickly drive them apart-a potent metaphor for the fickleness of romantic love.

But de Noailles also introduces an interesting counterpoint, asserting that other natural forces like "sorrow, and death, direct their motion / More than desire." This line seems to acknowledge that although love may be one of the strongest forces in human life, it is not the only one, nor the most enduring. The elements of "sorrow" and "death" provide a gravitational pull even more potent than desire, framing love as a temporary burst of energy in the continuum of existence.

The poem then explores the dichotomy of the transient and the eternal. Despite the urgent call to love with abandon, the poet warns that the "intertwined fingers, even as the petals, / Move to their fall." In using this botanical metaphor, de Noailles reinforces the cyclical nature of life, suggesting that every spring of love will inevitably lead to an autumnal ending.

The closing lines present a grim view of the future of love: "Your souls will crabbedly subside / Through love and death." There is a note of inevitability here, almost as if love's intensity can only be sustained briefly before giving way to darker, less harmonious feelings or the finality of death.

In its essence, "The Kiss" functions as a poignant reminder of love's ephemerality. Anna Elisabeth Mathieu de Noailles crafts a vivid narrative landscape filled with natural symbolism to convey the temporal nature of passion. By paralleling human love with natural phenomena, she compels the reader to consider love's fleeting beauty, its intense yet transient power, and its ultimate submission to the larger, unyielding forces of life and death. It's a poetic exploration that encourages us to cherish the moments of connection, even as we recognize their impermanence.

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