The speaker fiercely refutes anyone who claims love can die. To him, that idea is a slander, a sin born of falsehood. Love, he insists, is a divine gift, arriving on an angel’s wing to bloom eternally on earth. The mood is one of unwavering, almost prayer-like conviction. He clings to this personally: the thought of love cheers his heart. He lists the brightest sun, the bluest sky as love’s home, painting an idyllic, pure world. Through the softest dreams, sweetest voice, and scents of rose and cinnamon, he suggests love’s sensory richness, but memory of love outshines them all. There’s a bittersweet edge, a “pleasure in its very smart,” that mingles joy and ache. The poem’s repeated line, ‘In falsehood’s enmity they lie / Who sin and tell us love can die,’ hammers home his message like a refrain, leaving no room for doubt. An intimate, fervent atmosphere emerges where love is a sacred, immortal truth beyond earthly skepticism.
Love Cannot Die — Summary
In crime and enmity they lie Who sin and tell us love can die, Who say to us in slander's breath That love belongs to sin and death. From heaven it came on angel's wing To bloom on earth, eternal spring; In falsehood's enmity they lie Who sin and tell us love can die.
Twas born upon an angel's breast. The softest dreams, the sweetest rest, The brightest sun, the bluest sky, Are love's own home and canopy. The thought that cheers this heart of mine Is that of love; love so divine They sin who say in slander's breath That love belongs to sin and death.
The sweetest voice that lips contain, The sweetest thought that leaves the brain, The sweetest feeling of the heart-- There's pleasure in its very smart. The scent of rose and cinnamon Is not like love remembered on; In falsehood's enmity they lie Who sin and tell us love can die.