A Song of Opposites explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Sorrow and Melancholy

  The speaker explicitly welcomes sorrow and finds sweetness in pain, embracing melancholy as an integral part of life.

• Beauty and Transience

  Images of shipwrecked hulls, skulls, and nightshade kissing woodbine highlight the fleeting and paradoxical nature of beauty.

Characters to notice

• Unknown

  The speaker who joyfully welcomes both joy and sorrow, and all contrary experiences.

• Saturn

  Mentioned as 'Sombre Saturn' in the list of opposites paired with 'Momus hale'.

• Hermes

  Referenced as 'Hermes’ feather' alongside 'Lethe’s weed' as symbols of opposing forces.

Key passages

• “Welcome joy, and welcome sorrow, Lethe’s weed and Hermes’ feather; Come to-day, and come to-morrow, I do love you both together!”

  I embrace both happiness and sadness, forgetfulness and swiftness, the present and the future—I cherish them all equally.

  The speaker declares a love for all opposites, refusing to choose one over the other.

• “Infant playing with a skull; Morning fair, and shipwreck’d hull; Nightshade with the woodbine kissing; Serpents in red roses hissing;”

  An innocent child toys with a symbol of death; a beautiful morning contrasts with a ruined ship; poisonous plants entwine with sweet flowers; danger lurks within beauty.

  These vivid juxtapositions illustrate the coexistence of life and death, danger and delight.

• “Oh, the sweetness of the pain!”

  There is a strange pleasure even in suffering.

  The speaker finds a paradoxical joy in sorrow, a key theme of the poem.