Suspiria de Profundis · Chapter
The Solitude of Childhood explained
The chapter explores the profound and often overlooked solitude of childhood, particularly the longing for lost loved ones and the allure of the grave as a portal to reunion.
What happens
The chapter explores the profound and often overlooked solitude of childhood, particularly the longing for lost loved ones and the allure of the grave as a portal to reunion. It draws parallels to the German Heimweh, the sailor's calenture, and the Erl-king myth, emphasizing how solitude can amplify a child's yearning for the departed. The narrator reflects on a personal, book-unlearned feeling of Pan-like silence in nature that evokes a sick languishing for the impossible.
Themes in this chapter
Childhood and Innocence
The chapter examines the unique solitude of childhood and the innocent yet intense longing for lost loved ones, contrasting with adult experiences.
Solitude and Meditation
Explores how solitude can elevate a child's passion for the grave into a frenzy, and the meditative stillness of nature that evokes a yearning for the impossible.
Characters to notice
- The Narrator
Reflects on his own childhood experience of solitude and longing for the departed, describing a feeling not learned from books.
- Mr. Wordsworth
Referenced for his poems 'The Hart-leap Well' and 'Danish Boy' that evoke the Pan-like silence of noonday.
Key passages
“But even poetry has not perceived that these attractions may arise for a child. Not, indeed, a passion for the grave as the grave—from that a child revolts; but a passion for the grave as the portal through which it may recover some heavenly countenance, mother or sister, that has vanished.”
Poetry has missed that a child can be drawn to the grave not for death itself, but as a gateway to reunite with a lost mother or sister.
Highlights the child's unique perspective on death as a means of reunion.
“The poor sailor is in tropical latitudes; deep, breathless calms have prevailed for weeks. Fever and delirium are upon him. Suddenly from his restless hammock he starts up; he will fret no longer in darkness; he ascends upon deck. How motionless are the deeps! How vast—how sweet are these shining zaarrahs of water! He gazes, and slowly under the blazing scenery of his brain the scenery of his eye unsettles. The waters are swallowed up; the seas have disappeared. Green fields appear, a silent dell, and a pastoral cottage. Two faces appear—are at the door—sweet female faces, and behold they beckon him. 'Come to us!' they seem to say.”
A feverish sailor in the tropics hallucinates green fields and a cottage with two women beckoning him, leading him to jump overboard in a desperate attempt to reach them.
Illustrates the theme of longing for home and loved ones, akin to the child's yearning.