Q 1.

Comment closely on ways in which the following poem presents the speaker’s
feelings about the love.

PASSION

Full of desire I lay, the sky wounding me,

Each cloud a ship without me sailing, each tree
Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquillity.

Waiting for the longed-for voice to speak

Through the mute telephone, my body grew weak
With the well-known and mortal death, heartbreak.

The language I knew best, my human speech

Forsook my fingers, and out of reach
Were Homer’s ghosts, the savage conches of the beach.

Then the sky spoke to me in language clear,

Familiar as the heart, than love more near.
The sky said to my soul, `You have what you desire.

`Know now that you are born along with these

Clouds, winds, and stars, and ever-moving seas
And forest dwellers. This your nature is.

Lift up your heart again without fear,

Sleep in the tomb, or breathe the living air,
This world you with the flower and with the tiger share.’

Then I saw every visible substance turn

Into immortal, every cell new born
Burned with the holy fire of passion.

This world I saw as on her judgment day

When the war ends, and the sky rolls away,
And all is light, love and eternity.

Kathleen Raine (1908-2003)

Answer

In Kathleen Raine’s passion the speaker thinks about the outside world carefully after
experiencing heartbreak. While struggling with the pain and longing they hears a voice from
the sky telling them that they already have all that they could want reminding them that they
were born “along with these Clouds, winds, and stars, and ever-moving seas and forest
dwellers”(lines 14-15) which eventually convinces them and gives the speaker a new view of
universal passion and eternal love. This poem talks about how painful heartbreak can be and
that no one is ever truly alone.
 The poem talks about the pain of heartbreak but also argues that it doesn't last forever.
The poem's speaker is mourning a lost love which makes her feel helpless and completely
alone in the world. The speaker trees possessing tranquillity which the writer feel their “soul
lacked” they lay waiting for the “telephone” to ring most likely waiting for their ex lover to
call wanting to hear their voice saying that the speaker's body grew weak from the “mortal
death” also known as heartbreak.
However soon enough “the sky” comforts the speaker telling them that they already
have what they desire reminding them of the connection between them and nature and all the
creatures in it, the sky tells them to “Lift up your heart again without fear”(line 16) eventually
the speaker’s pain dulls when they realize that they are in fact not alone and heartbreak is
temporary making the speaker realize that noticing one's connection to the rest of creation can
open one’s heart again.