BY ROBERT GRAVES
Are you shaken, are you stirred
By a whisper of love,
Spellbound to a word
Does Time cease to move,
Till her calm grey eye
Expands to a sky
And the clouds of her hair
Like storms go by?
Then the lips that you have kissed
Turn to frost and fire,
And a white-steaming mist
Obscures desire:
So back to their birth
Fade water, air, earth,
And the First Power moves
Over void and dearth.
Is that Love? no, but Death,
A passion, a shout,
The deep in-breath,
The breath roaring out,
And once that is flown,
You must lie alone,
Without hope, without life,
Poor flesh, sad bone.
Poetry Link
Symbolisms:
Shaken, Stirred, Whisper, Spellbound, cease, move, clam, grey, eye, sky, clouds, hair, storms, lips, kissed, frost, fire, white-streaming mist, Obscures desire, Fade water, air, earth, roaring, hope, passion, shout, life, flesh, bone
Denotation: Shaken, Stirred, Whisper are all of sounds of when a person is frighten or nervous.
Connotation: The connotation of these sounds represent emotional sexuality.
Denotation: Spellbound is the act of being completely captivated
Connotation: The connotation of spellbound is when one is put under hypnosis.
Denotation: Grey is a color.
Connotation: The color grey can mean calm or depressed.
Denotation: Both hair, and lips are body parts of a human
Connotation: The connotation of hair and lips represents the sexuality of a woman when she is trying to receive attention from the opposite sex.
Denotation: White-steaming is a color that is very pale and ghostly.
Connotation: White-streaming can mean pure and innocence.
Denotation: The definition of frost is the process of freezing.
Connotation: Frost can mean death where an individual turns cold and freezes over. When one dies, the individual will turn cold and lifeless.
Denotation: Fire is the destruction of burning something.
Connotation: Fire represents aliveness, warmth, passion, and anger.
Denotation: Desire means when one craves for something that he or she cannot have.
Connotation: Desire represents lust and temptation towards sexuality.
Denotation: The definition of fading water is when water slowly drifts away.
Connotation: Water represents rebirth and purity.
Denotation: The definition of Death is lifeless.
Connotation: Death means the end of being alive or the act sinfulness causing purity to die.
Robert Graves born on July 24, 1895 was a famous English poet. Graves produced more than 140 literature works. Robert Graves favored in writing Greek myths such as The Twelve Caesars and Claudius the God. One poem I decided to analyze was “The Kiss”, this poem is very out of the ordinary because it describes a frightening image of a girl being raped. Robert Graves adds in different elemental moods into this poem to signify the supernatural.
Definitions taken from Dictionary.com “The Kiss” starts off with a question “are you shaken, are you stirred.” This first line represents fright. When an individual is nervous or scared he or she may shiver. The word love is like a spell, once the word love is said to a girl the girl automatically thinks it’s the end of the world. Grey symbolizes maturity or sadness. Her eyes stare off into space when the word love is whispered, all while that happens time seems to stop for her. This relates to the quote “my heart skips a beat whenever I’m with you.” Every time you’re with a special person you would want time to stop in one place. What Robert Grave is saying in this poem is love is like a spell that makes time stop in the imaginary mind.
In the second stanza, “then the lips that you have kissed turn to frost and fire” , which means that when the girl in this poem is kissed she feels a sudden life and death. The white- steaming mist and faded water symbolizes her purity and innocence. White symbolizes purity; mist represents fading and something going away. Which means her purity is taken due to temptations and desires.
Robert Graves adds in the elements water, air, and earth all which have tremendous amounts of meaning. Air can symbolize many things that involve in the mind. Strong winds can symbolize trouble because when winds blow it is hard to get back up and walk through. Foggy air symbolizes cloudy minds, which means the girl in the poem perhaps cannot think properly due to the spell she is under. According to Jung’s interpretation water means rebirth and refreshment. The girl in this poem believes in the word love so much she feels like she is the goddess of the earth.
In the third stanza Robert Graves starts off with another question. “Is that love? No, but death” a word such as love is a powerful word that many young girls will fall for. In this last paragraph Robert Graves quotes sounds of someone breathing hard. Either the girl got raped or got into a passionate argument with her “lover.” Graves ends the poem with “without hope, without life” which means she is lying there sorrowfully regretting all alone.
