The speaker addresses a lover who seems full of contradictions: pale yet burning, yielding yet unyielding, like a moon that carries the sun’s heat. He offers everything—his soul, heart, dreams, and senses—to this overwhelming figure. The poem creates a mood of ecstatic surrender, almost like worship, but also of being undone. The lover’s power “cleaves into nothing” his vast inner world, and his life is “bruised, burnt, torn and thrown” into her rejoicing. Yet this destruction feels welcome, even sacred. Pain and pleasure blur, and the speaker’s whole being becomes music made from the lover’s words of delight and moan. It is intense, mystical, and consuming rather than tender.
Ah! Pale Cool Lips That Burn — Summary
Ah! pale cool lips that burn, Body that yields, though unyielding, Oh, moon with the heat of the sun! Flashing out a million lights To cleave into nothing the endless firmament of my being. Take all; my soul's mistress! heart's queen, The flaming fancies of my dream-tortured night The intoxicating fruits of my day dream, The fiery lotus of my senses' delight That rises from the abyss of my life. The abysmal heaven of love and living Now bruised, burnt, torn and thrown To the winds of thy ravishing rejoicing Whose inarticulate words of delight and moan Make the ever-yielding music of my soul.