Irradiations VIII — Summary

Fletcher imagines a fountain as an exchange of energy between two people. Its spray moves “from me to you and back to me,” suggesting a passionate back-and-forth of desire or emotion. The speaker’s feelings are intense and physical: he hurls “kisses like blows,” as if affection and force are impossible to separate. There is ecstasy in the whirling water and in the image of a bee drunk on sunlight, but that ecstasy quickly “sighs” and fades. By the end, the fountain’s spray turns “pallid” against a “sorrowful, silent sky,” shifting the mood from restless, golden excitement into something quieter and more melancholy. The poem feels like a brief, dazzling surge of love or longing that exhausts itself and leaves loneliness behind.