Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, I FIGHT AGAINST YOU, by ANNA ELISABETH MATHIEU DE NOAILLES


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

I FIGHT AGAINST YOU, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: I fight against you while I am awake
Last Line: It is on waking that I cease to be.
Alternate Author Name(s): Brancovan, Princess
Subject(s): Dreams; Love; Memory; Sleep; Nightmares


I fight against you while I am awake;
I forbid my lively glance, my ear, to take
Their tumult to this heart your eyes have stirred.
I wander out of myself, I leave unheard
Your memory that exalts me, sweeps my calm.
I refuse my life a quintessential balm.
All day I can reject the honey-scroll
Your voice, your laughter, leave within my soul,
Whither my clamorous hunger cries me on. ...
But at night my power against you is all gone.
At night my spirit is no longer proof;
My sleep is open, without door or roof;
You invest me as the wind takes the plain.
Through my glance, my mouth, my very breath, you gain
Entrance: by all without and all within.
You enter upon my spirit where sleep has been,
As Ulysses with bare feet stole up the strand,
And we are there alone, held in my dream's hand;
We advance watchfully, confident, bold,
In an infinite world that only will hold
Two. A strong wall keeps us from other men,
Nothing human reaches the lands of our ken.
Fair and foul fortune have no sense we seize;
And I long for death while clinging to your knees,
So is my love athirst for the ultimate blow;
And you exist no more in my heart, I love you so!
My frenzy seals us here as in a tomb.
This terrible moment is of such fervid bloom
That, when dawn slowly treads the east to me,
It is on waking that I cease to be.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net