# Tutto è Sciolto explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by James Joyce.

## What happens

A solitary speaker reflects on a past love under a twilight sky, recalling the beloved's gentle features and the love that was almost fully possessed, now lost to time.

## Themes in this chapter

### Memory and Nostalgia

The entire poem is a recollection of a past love, triggered by the twilight scene.

### Transience and Loss

The love is described as 'so faint, so far,' and the speaker questions why repine when the love was 'all but thine,' emphasizing its fleeting nature.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The speaker, remembering a past love under the evening sky.

### Beloved

The one remembered, with 'clear young eyes' and 'fragrant hair,' who yielded love with a sigh.

## Key lines

> A birdless heaven, seadusk, one lone star Piercing the west, As thou, fond heart, love’s time, so faint, so far, Rememberest.

Under a sky empty of birds, at dusk over the sea with a single star in the west, you, my loving heart, remember love's distant and faded time.

_The speaker sets the scene of memory._

> The clear young eyes’ soft look, the candid brow, The fragrant hair, Falling as through the silence falleth now Dusk of the air.

I recall the gentle gaze of young eyes, the honest forehead, the sweet-smelling hair, which now falls through the silence like the evening air.

_Vivid sensory memory of the beloved._

> Why then, remembering those shy Sweet lures, repine When the dear love she yielded with a sigh Was all but thine?

So why, when remembering those shy, sweet enticements, should I complain, since the precious love she gave with a sigh was almost entirely mine?

_The speaker questions his own regret over a love that was nearly possessed._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/tutto-sciolto
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters