The speaker starts out telling himself he won’t visit his lover tonight. In daylight, he feels cautious and clear-headed enough to stay away. But once darkness arrives, that resolve falls apart: he cannot bear to be apart from her. He turns to the beloved and asks her to let down her hair so it can surround him like a tent or shelter. In that enclosed, intimate dark, he feels more truly safe and wise than he does in the cold, loveless light of day. The poem captures the push-pull between restraint and desire, and the way night can make emotional needs feel more real than daytime logic. The mood is urgent, tender, and a little helpless, as if the speaker knows he will give in but still asks to be hidden inside love.
Irresolute Lover — Summary
I SAID, " I will not go to her to-night," When I had courage from the prudent light. My resolution vanished with the day, When the dark came I could not live away. O! My dear Love, let down your hair. Make me a tent, and let me shelter there; That in the darkness of a screened night I live more prudent than in loveless light.