Poetry · Chapter
O! Were I One of the Olympian Twelve explained
The speaker expresses a wish to be among the Olympian gods in order to decree that any man who toils for a distant beauty should be rewarded with the beloved's increasing softness and fairness, and that each hardship he endures should yield
What happens
The speaker expresses a wish to be among the Olympian gods in order to decree that any man who toils for a distant beauty should be rewarded with the beloved's increasing softness and fairness, and that each hardship he endures should yield a kiss that ripens and melts upon his lips.
Themes in this chapter
Mythology and Classical Reference
The poem directly invokes the Olympian twelve, drawing on Greek mythology to frame a wish for divine power to reward love.
Love and Loss
The speaker's longing for a law that rewards the lover's toil with kisses and beauty underscores the theme of love's desire and the pain of separation.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker who wishes to be one of the Olympian twelve and proposes a law rewarding the toiling lover.
Key passages
“O! were I one of the Olympian twelve, Their godships should pass this into a law,— That when a man doth set himself in toil After some beauty veiled far away, Each step he took should make his lady’s hand More soft, more white, and her fair cheek more fair: And for each briar-berry he might eat, A kiss should bud upon the tree of love, And pulp and ripen richer every hour, To melt away upon the traveller’s lips.”
If I were one of the twelve Olympian gods, I would make a law: whenever a man labors to reach a distant beauty, each step he takes would make his lady's hand softer and her cheek fairer, and for every wild berry he eats, a kiss would grow on the tree of love, ripening each hour until it melts on the traveler's lips.
The speaker imagines a divine reward system that transforms the lover's hardships into tangible tokens of affection.