Ask me no more: the moon may draw the sea;
The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape,
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape;
But O too fond, when have I answer'd thee?
Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: what answer should I give?
I love not hollow cheek or faded eye:
Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die!
Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live;
Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal'd:
I strove against the stream and all in vain:
Let the great river take me to the main:
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;
Ask me no more.
The cloud may stoop from heaven and take the shape,
With fold to fold, of mountain or of cape;
But O too fond, when have I answer'd thee?
Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: what answer should I give?
I love not hollow cheek or faded eye:
Yet, O my friend, I will not have thee die!
Ask me no more, lest I should bid thee live;
Ask me no more.
Ask me no more: thy fate and mine are seal'd:
I strove against the stream and all in vain:
Let the great river take me to the main:
No more, dear love, for at a touch I yield;
Ask me no more.
-Alfred Lord Tennyson
I believe the speaker in this poem is speaking to a lover. The poem has an overall feeling of pleading, with the repeated line "Ask me no more," which is indeed the title of the poem. It seems to me that in the first stanza, the poet is stating that "things may occur" and yet he does not want to provide an answer to the question he is being asked.
In the second stanza he states that he does not love illness or death, but also states that he does not want to command the person to live.
The third stanza to me seems like it could be interpreted in two ways. He describes struggling against an insurmountable force, and it seems to me to either be love or death. If it is death, then "take me to the main" sounds to me like the afterlife. However, the line "for at a touch, I yield" makes me think that he is speaking of love.
Overall, I interpret the meaning of the poem to be one where his lover has asked him a somewhat baited question, along the lines of "will you love me forever?" And so love and eternity and death are all tied in with that question. It seems he does not want to offer that kind of commitment to the person who asked the question.
1 comment:
It sounds to me that his lover may have asked him if he loves her many a time and he's telling her that his answer will always be the same, so ask him no more. He says "thy fate and mine are sealed" which sounds to me that they are soul mates. Though he may have tried in the past to deny it, he yields to her touch every time.
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