Edward Shanks’s speaker is caught between wanderlust and regret. He has not seen everything, yet the places he has visited—Birdlip, Paris, Fontainebleau, Wells—stay with him like echoes or distant bells. Their names are lovely, but the memories become almost too vivid: the vision closes too soon, yet the feeling remains too long, like a fading friendship that still lingers. The final couplet flips the mood into complaint: maybe it is better to stay home, because the towns one has seen tangle up the present day with “stupid memories.” The overall mood is wistful, restless, and slightly bitter—someone who loves the idea of travel but resents how memory clings and disturbs the present.
The Complaints III — Summary
There are many countries that I have not seen, And many kinds of men I have not met, But all the gracious towns where I have been Haunt in my brain and whisper there and set Strange echoes going with their lovely names, Birdlip and Paris, Fontainebleau and Wells, Places that live in me like happy dreams And sound in the present day like distant bells. Here I am set and there's no end, no end ; Too soon the vision closes, too long remains, Like the last long talk one had with a lost friend, Whose memory lingers on, when friendship wanes.
Better to stay at home ! The towns one sees Trammel the day with stupid memories.