Anna Wickham’s speaker addresses a lover with a love so complete that ordinary gestures feel useless. She doesn’t want praise or admiration; in fact, she would accept being lowly or outcast if it meant she could devote herself entirely to easing his suffering. There is something almost feverish in her need to give, as if only selfless service can sweeten her life. The opening lines create a mood of intense, restless devotion, where love and sacrifice blur together. The final stanza shifts toward calm: she imagines the two of them leaving society for the mountains, building a life in clear, cool air where they can discover “a plan of perfect living.” It is a private, idealistic vision—part escape, part spiritual longing. The poem leaves a feeling of overwhelming tenderness mixed with an almost religious desire to give everything for another person.
Service — Summary
I LOVE you so entirely I cannot think to please you, My art is wasted. You are burnt with madness. My being burns to ease you. In dreams of utter service, Is all sweetness tasted.
I love you so entirely, I want you not to praise me! I would be low in all esteem! I would be outcast with one thing to raise me, The hope of service I have gathered in a dream.
Let us go to the mountains, O my Lover! And make our habitation near the sky; In clear, cool air we can discover A plan of perfect living, you and I.