Leaves of Grass · Chapter
Fast-Anchor’d Eternal O Love! explained
The speaker addresses love as an eternal anchor, expressing a profound and resistless thought of a woman as bride and wife.
What happens
The speaker addresses love as an eternal anchor, expressing a profound and resistless thought of a woman as bride and wife. Then, as if disembodied, the speaker ascends into the ethereal regions of a man's love, a sharer of a roving life, blending themes of love, the body, and transcendence.
Themes in this chapter
Sexuality and the Body
The poem explicitly addresses love for a woman (bride, wife) and a man, blending physical and spiritual union.
Death and Immortality
The speaker describes becoming 'disembodied' and ascending into eternal love, suggesting transcendence beyond physical life.
Characters to notice
- Narrator
The speaker who addresses love and ascends into ethereal regions.
Key passages
“Fast-anchor’d eternal O love! O woman I love! O bride! O wife! more resistless than I can tell, the thought of you!”
Love is an eternal anchor; the thought of the beloved woman, bride, and wife is overwhelmingly powerful.
The speaker declares the irresistible power of love for a woman.
“Then separate, as disembodied or another born, Ethereal, the last athletic reality, my consolation, I ascend, I float in the regions of your love O man, O sharer of my roving life.”
Then, as if freed from the body or reborn, I rise into the ethereal realm of your love, O man who shares my wandering existence.
The speaker transitions from earthly love to a spiritual ascent, addressing a male companion.