SWGNMAR

Summary

End of youth/frivolous lifestyle, looking at change/development.

Rhyme Scheme

ABAB

Meter

Iambic Tetrameter

Less beats per line, stanza 2, slowing speed, shows difficulty of change.

Themes

Reflection
Nostalgia
Maturity
Aging
Sex
Change

"So, we'll go..."
"So late into..."

Anaphora - lexical choice, in media res, avoiding controversy at later stage in life.

"And the moon be still as bright."

Moon Imagery - sign of change, only constant in poem, always there like passion/emotion.

"sword outwears its sheath"

Phallic Imagery - becoming sexually tired in old age, reflecting on frivolous life once lived.

"And the..."
"And the..."
"And love..."

Repetition - emotion/passion, reflection on hedonistic lifestyle/lost youthfulness.

"heart must pause to breathe"

Imagery of Tiredness - ups and downs of life, multitude of emotion, overwhelming, connotes old age.

"Yet we'll go no more a roving"

Cyclical Structure - display of change, cycle of life and death, still remains the same person despite loss of age.

"By the light of the moon."

Romance Imagery - contrast of day and night symbolic of life and death/old age and youth.

AO3 - Living in Exile in Venice

Written during exhaustion due to illness as a result of sexual activity/scandalous past.

AO3 - Incest

Believed to had had sexual relations with his half sister, an accusation that would have ended his career.