The speaker is Sappho, the legendary Greek poet, and she’s reeling from the discovery that her lover Phaon has been unfaithful. She begins by asking why a thick mist clouds her vision and why a threatening storm blots out the day — not just weather, but a reflection of her inner devastation. Even the altar of Venus, the goddess of love, seems to vanish from her sight, leaving a cold dread on her chest. The outburst “Phaon is false!” lands like a death sentence: she calls for darkness to swallow the sky, for thunder and lightning to rage, because without him she feels she has no reason to live. The sestet shifts into a wrenching wish — if Phaon had only said a simple, affectionate farewell, or even a flat goodbye, that small cruelty would still have been a kindness. The thought of it, she imagines, might have soothed her ghost on its way through “life’s dark valley.” The mood is all despair and emotional vertigo, steeped in violent imagery that turns heartbreak into a physical tempest.
Sonnet XXXV: What Means the Mist — Summary
What means the mist opaque that veils these eyes; Why does yon threat'ning tempest shroud the day? Why does thy altar, Venus, fade away, And on my breast the dews of horror rise? Phaon is false! be dim ye orient Skies; And let black Erebus succeed your ray; Let clashing thunders roll, and lightning play; Phaon is false! and hopeless Sappho dies! "Farewell! my Lesbian love, you might have said," Such sweet remembrance had some pity prov'd, "Or coldly this, farewell, Oh! Lesbian maid!" No task severe, for one so fondly lov'd! The gentle thought had sooth'd my wand'ring shade, From life's dark valley, and its thorns remov'd!