Changelessness explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Death and Decay

  The chapter dwells on the beloved's death, her body turning to ashes, and the imagery of burial and decay.

• Vanity of Human Endeavor

  Despite physical beauty and mortal love, all fades away, yet the poem paradoxically asserts the endurance of beauty beyond death.

Characters to notice

• Unknown

  The speaker who addresses the beloved and reflects on death and eternal beauty.

• Death

  Personified as the force that touches the beloved's body, leading to her burial and transformation.

Key passages

• “When Death shall touch thy body beautiful, And thou that art of all the earth most fair Shalt close thine eyes upon the shining air, An unadorned gold urn to make full;”

  When Death touches your beautiful body, and you, the fairest on earth, close your eyes to the bright sky, filling a simple golden urn with your ashes.

  The speaker imagines the beloved's death and cremation.

• “Then in the earth, O beautiful white love, Thy beauty shall not wholly end and cease, When that thou art gone to endless peace;”

  Then in the earth, my beautiful pale love, your beauty will not completely end or stop, even when you have gone to eternal rest.

  The speaker asserts that the beloved's beauty persists beyond death.

• “Though all things beneath the sky above Fade away, it knoweth not to die, But abideth changeless endlessly.”

  Although everything under the sky fades away, this beauty does not know how to die, but remains unchanged forever.

  The concluding lines emphasize the eternal, unchanging nature of the beloved's beauty.