Talk:The Writings of Oscar Wilde/Volume 1/Her Voice

--81.249.104.191 16:43, 20 April 2008 (UTC)Frank Thorogood April 20, 2008

Interpretation of "Her Voice" by Oscar Wilde

It would seem that this poem was written to Florence Balcome,with whom he fell in love before she left him for Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, before he married, had two children and tried to love his wife until his homosexuality overcame his effort to live within the conventions of the time.

The first stanza shows him philandering and seeking and finding his love. "The wild bee reels from bough to bough".

In the second stanza he pledges his throth with wild optimism. "It shall be, I said, for eternity". But already, the end is announced. "Those times are over and done; love's web is spun".

The third and fourth stanzas express the boredom of his heterosexual relationship and compare it to what it may have been, what it is for others. "Here in the valley never a breeze scatters the thistledown, but there great winds blow fair..."

A rekindling of hope comes in the fifth stanza. A possibility of reconciliation. "Ships tempest-tossed will find a harbour in some bay, and so we may".

Finally, in the sixth stanza comes despair and tender departure. "And there is nothing left to do but to kiss once again and part. One world was not enough for two like me and you".