Page 311 - DENG405_BRITISH_POETRY

British Poetry

Notes Lines 28-30

All breathing human passion far above,
That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy’d,
A burning forehead and a parching tongue.
Line 28 has somewhat awkward grammar. Generations of readers have not known what to make of
these lines. Line 27 told us about the “panting” of the lovers, but now these lines might suggest that
the lovers are better than or “far above” the “breathing human passion” of the normal world.
That’s one interpretation. But here’s a different one.
In this second interpretation, “far above” refers to the perspective of the speaker, our excited guy
who is “breathing” on the display case at the museum as he salivates over the urn.
The word “all” suggests that the speaker knows he belongs to a much wider and more populous
world than the people on the urn. In other words, the urn is like a tiny planet that is frozen in time
while all around it people are moving and breathing and carrying on with their lives.
So if the speaker represents the “human passion” that looks down on this little world from “far
above,” then line 29 must refer to his “heart,” not just any old heart.
When he looks at the happy lovers, the speaker’s heart becomes “high-sorrowful and cloy’d.” In
other words, he feels a dramatic, woe-is-me kind of sadness.
To be “cloy’d” is to have too much of a good thing. The speaker is overpowered by his excitement,
and instead of a warm and pleasant “panting,” he feels feverish, with a “burning forehead,” and
desperately thirsty, with “a parching of tongue.”
He’s like a guy stuck in the desert. But instead of water, he craves love.

Stanza IV Summary
Line 31
Who are these coming to the sacrifice?
Just when we thought the speaker might faint from the steamy, sticky atmosphere of the lovers, he
manages to turn his attention to other things.
Now the speaker is looking at the third scene on the urn, which depicts an animal sacrifice.
Just as in stanza I, the speaking is leaning in and trying to figure out what is going on in the scene.
In stanza I he asked “What,” and now he asks, “Who?” There seem to be people coming to watch
the sacrifice.

Line 32-34
To what green altar, O mysterious priest,
Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,
And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?
Now our speaker talks to the priest on the urn, asking him, “Hey, where are you headed?”
He wants to know to “what green altar” he is taking a cow (“heifer”).
In classical times, an altar was a place where sacrifices were carried out, and this one is covered
with leaves and vegetation that make it green. The poor cow must know what’s coming, because it
moans or “lows” at the sky.
Its sides (“flanks”) are dressed in a string or “garland” of flowers. This cow is a holy object, destined
for the Gods.

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