PASSION

By Kathleen Raine

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

• British poet lived between 1908-2003
• Daughter of a Methodist minister
• Believed that humans were connected to nature on a spiritual level
• Admired William Blake (remember “The Clod and the Pebble”)and his views on nature
• Her poetry was inspired by the landscape of Northumberland, where she lived with her Aunt Peggy when she was a child during WWI
• She read the Bible every day and had much of it memorized

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

LOVE LIFE

• Two of her father’s associates fell in love with her during her teenage years and he put a stop to it. She was angry at the time, but later realized her father’s acts were out of love for her.
• She got her Master’s degree at Cambridge in 1929, wrote extensively about William Blake’s work.
• She married twice, leaving her first husband for her second, who later left her for another woman. She had two children.
• She was in an unrequited relationship author Gavin Maxwell, who was homosexual. One of his most famous books, Ring of Bright Water (also made into a movie), was taken from her poem “Marriage Psyche.” Their relationship ended when his beloved pet otter died after she lost him. She never forgave herself and blamed herself for every bad thing that happened to Gavin Maxwell, including him dying of cancer later in life.
• She died at 95 when she got run over by a car after dropping a letter in the mailbox.

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RIP MIJBIL

PASSION

What words come to mind from the title?

Barely controllable emotion.

An intense anger

An intense sexual desire

A deep desire or enthusiasm for something

An obsession

A deep love for someone

MARK THE METER�RHYME SCHEME

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU…

Full of desire I lay, the sky wounding me, A

Each cloud a ship without me sailing, each tree A

Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquility. A

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Waiting for the longed-for voice to speak B

Through the mute telephone, my body grew weak B

With the well-known and mortal death, heartbreak. B

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The language I knew best, my human speech C

Forsook my fingers, and out of reach C

Were Homer’s ghosts, the savage conches of the beach. C

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Then the sky spoke to me in language clear, D

Familiar as the heart, than love more near. D

The sky said to my soul, `You have what you desire. D

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`Know now that you are born along with these E

Clouds, winds, and stars, and ever-moving seas E

And forest dwellers. This your nature is. E

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Lift up your heart again without fear, F

Sleep in the tomb, or breathe the living air, F

This world you with the flower and with the tiger share.’F

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Then I saw every visible substance turn G

Into immortal, every cell new born G

Burned with the holy fire of passion. G

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This world I saw as on her judgment day H

When the war ends, and the sky rolls away, H

And all is light, love and eternity. H (OR A)

Rhyming tercets (three line stanzas) are associated with Dante’s Divine Comedy which follows the journey from the Inferno (hell) to Paradiso (heaven), in turn mimicing the journey of the heartbreak of the speaker in this poem as she navigates heartbreak.

Loosely Iambic Pentameter

The highlighted words are slant rhymes, not perfect but close. The final line both slant rhymes with the stanza and also rhymes back to the beginning perhaps to show that life is circular and that pain/loss is a part of it. The slant rhymes may represent the unpredictability of life and the journey to healing.

Who is the speaker?

From the opening of the poem, the word “I” lets us know that the author is the speaker.

Full of desire I lay, the sky wounding me,

The poem is narrated from the perspective of a heartbroken woman. �She experiences many emotions from hopelessness to hopefulness.

THEMES

Heartbreak is a journey…

A reconnection with nature is a returning of the spirit to God

Embrace the ups and downs in life

Death and Mortality are part of life’s experiences

Hope is nearby, once you let go of the pain

Full of desire I lay, the sky wounding me,

Each cloud a ship without me sailing, each tree

Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquility.

​

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.

Personification of the innocent sky into a harmful creature both wounding her and leaving her behind.

The personification of the tree combined with the enjambment from lines 1-2, shows the reader that the tree possesses what the speaker lacks: tranquility.

Literary allusion to Homer and the Odyssey. She sees herself as unable to communicate what she wishes to say, like the ghosts in the Odyssey.

The ending of a relationship is compared to a mortal death (ending of a life), because it possesses similar qualities. The speaker feels as if she were dying because the relationship is over.

enjambment

enjambment

enjambment

enjambment

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.

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`Know now that you are born along with these

Clouds, winds, and stars, and ever-moving seas

And forest dwellers. This your nature is.

The sky is personified again, but as a more positive entity, creating an auditory image.

Simile continues to portray the speaker’s heartbreak and its connection to nature. The sky goes on to tell her that she has what she needs. The sky becomes in essence like a parent or close friend, showing her the way out of her sorrow.

enjambment

enjambment

Anastrophe: when the usual word order is reversed for effect (like Yoda). The reversal in this sentence denotes the change in attitude of the speaker. She is beginning to turn a corner.

The enjambment speeds up the pace in the next stanza. As nature presents her case for recovery. Nature is telling her to look at the beauty that surrounds her and welcomes her with loving arms. The final line making it clear that she is one with nature.

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.

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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.

Juxtaposition: the speaker is presented with options: die or live, because both will always be in the world, like the flower and the tiger. To be happy is a choice. To wallow in sorrow is a choice.

Once the speaker decides to live again, she sees the world in a new way, born again, full of miracles of a holy nature. The fire of passion is a zest and longing to live.

The war is her inner turmoil, thus when it ends, her burden ends.

Biblical allusion to the second coming of Christ where the world will be rid of evil and restored. The speaker is resurrected and all is now light and love.

The poem ends with a tripartite (having three parts), showing that the speaker is loved and supported by the wider world, even if she has been shunned by her lover. The suggestion is that “passion” in the divine sense, represents a love that is far more powerful than human love. The word eternity returns the rhyme back to A, and the first stanza.

enjambment

enjambment

enjambment

Why is this the longest line?

The only structure in the poem is the repetition of the tercets, which could represent the trinity. While she strayed from her center as the rhyme scheme and meter changed, she finds herself off track and in a state of sadness. When she returns to God at the end she reconnects to her stability when eternity is connected to tranquility.

EXPLORE ONE OF THE CONCEPTS FROM TODAY MORE IN DEPTH.

Write a paragraph connecting one idea to the text. Explain MORE than what you have already learned.