Query — Summary

The speaker asks a quiet but urgent question about love, using a cup as the central image. One kind of woman refuses the drink that love offers her; she is the “sage,” careful and self-protective. The other kind takes the cup and drinks it all, even though it is described as “mad,” and then meets death with a smile. The poem does not say which choice is right. Instead, it lets the question hang in the air, full of feeling. The mood is intimate and dramatic, with a dark undertone. There is admiration for the woman who loves completely, but also a sense that such love costs everything. The speaker seems caught between wanting safety and wanting passion, unsure which woman she is or wants to be.