# O Hymen! O Hymenee! explained — Leaves of Grass

> Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

## What happens

The speaker addresses Hymen, the god of marriage, expressing a painful longing for union that is only fleetingly granted, suggesting that its continuation would be overwhelming and fatal.

## Themes in this chapter

### Sexuality and the Body

The poem directly invokes Hymen, the god of marriage, and explores the intense, momentary sting of sexual union and its overwhelming potential.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The speaker who cries out to Hymen in desire and frustration.

## Key lines

> O Hymen! O Hymenee! O hymen! O hymenee! why do you tantalize me thus? O why sting me for a swift moment only? Why can you not continue? O why do you now cease? Is it because if you continued beyond the swift moment you would soon certainly kill me?

The speaker asks why the god of marriage teases him with only a brief, sharp moment of union, and wonders if its continuation would be so intense it would destroy him.

_The speaker's plea reveals a tension between the desire for prolonged ecstasy and the fear of its fatal intensity._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/o-hymen-o-hymenee
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters