When the speaker is kissed, she feels overwhelmed—“blind”—not in a negative way but overtaken by ecstasy. Her senses fill with pleasure, and that intensity makes her feel vividly alive and self-aware. Love opens her to a feeling of connection with everything living and even the dead. She compares herself to a tree shaken by wind and water lifted by the sun, images of being moved and drawn upward by a powerful outside force. But when her lover leaves, that same force turns inward and destructive: she becomes earthquake, eclipse, cold darkness, and tearing grief. The poem moves between these extremes—total rapture when together, total devastation when apart—and the repetition of “I am blind” at the end makes the surrender feel almost helpless, as if love leaves no distance or control.
Surrender — Summary
When you kiss me I am blind. My senses Are filled with ecstasy. I only feel how strong my life is, And so know myself. From love I understand all things that live. And even the dead.
I am like a tree Shaken in wind. Or like water that is drawn into the air Through the strong loving of the sun.
When you are gone, I am myself earthquake and eclipse, And all cold darkness, and rending grief.
When you kiss me I am blind. I am blind!