The speaker jolts awake, shooing away the "delusive phantoms" of a dream that preys on a lover's tender heart. He is so fragile right now that even the gentlest breeze or a wisp of cloud feels like a threat to his peace. Recognizing the vision for what it was, he turns toward the real world: the morning star glinting like a jewel on Mount Etna, the golden vineyards, forests, and cheerful valleys of Sicily. But the beauty doesn't lift his sorrow. He calls himself a mournful stranger from Lesbos—a clear nod to the poet Sappho, whose verses could charm a stoic and hold crowds spellbound, yet could never ease her own heart's wounds. That final cry, "Sorrows known too soon! and felt too long!", captures the poem's mood exactly: a weary, knowing ache that no sunrise can chase away.
Sonnet XXXIII: I Wake — Summary
I wake! delusive phantoms hence, away! Tempt not the weakness of a lover's breast; The softest breeze can shake the halcyon's nest, And lightest clouds o'ercast the dawning ray! 'Twas but a vision! Now, the star of day Peers, like a gem on Aetna's burning crest! Wellcome, ye Hills, with golden vintage drest; Sicilian forests brown, and vallies gay! A mournful stranger, from the Lesbian Isle, Not strange, in loftiest eulogy of Song! She, who could teach the Stoic's cheek to smile, Thaw the cold heart, and chain the wond'ring throng, Can find no balm, love's arrows to beguile; Ah! Sorrows known too soon! and felt too long!