Love-songs, at Once Tender and Informative II — Summary

A woman is compared to a Sphinx—a figure that sits silently with thoughts no one can read. The speaker jokes that only God knows what she is thinking. Then the poem turns to “hard-boiled men,” tough cynics who pride themselves on never falling in love, and says they dismiss her inner life completely: she doesn’t think at all. The contrast is the real point. The poem makes those men’s confidence sound ridiculous, not wise. Her silence is treated as mystery, not emptiness. The mood is light, witty, and a little mocking—like a short epigram with a sting in its final line. The phrase “Love-songs, at Once Tender and Informative” adds to the irony, as if this sharp little observation is being offered with a smirk.