Tina, He compares her effect upon him to "a new lightness", "sweet leaves", and "subtle clearness". How is this a denial of her goodness? How does it amount to a suffocation? You may be picking up on the hints of illness in "gauze" and "aether" and "straitly", hints which are borne out by the explicit reference later on to "winter's wound" -- but from the get-go she is depicted as the rejuvenating cure of his malady, not as its cause... unless I'm not picking up on something. Line 8 is still a bit of a mystery to me...not sure I get the "half in half" stuff. Plato? Tim Christina Poppy wrote: > tim, > > I think there's a turn at line 7 with "Oh, I have picked up magic in her > nearness/To sheathe me half in half the things that sheathe her." > Before this he (speaker) seems to deny the goodness about her, she cloaks, > covers, suffocates. but after this he compares her to spring, trees; he > seems to progress from thinking 'she binds me' to 'she binds me, but she > heals me; her binding (sheathing) protects me.' > > theres no clear subject to 'hath' but I would suppose it relates to 'her,' > since she seems to be the object of comparison to trees. > > tina