Memory and Reminiscence

"Tonight I Can Write" is a poem about memories of a lost love and the pain they can cause. Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken. He continually juxtaposes images of the passion he felt for the woman he loved with the loneliness he experiences in the present. He is now at some distance from the relationship and so acknowledges, "tonight I can write the saddest lines," suggesting that the pain he suffered after losing his lover had previously prevented any reminiscences or descriptions of it. While the pain he experienced had blocked his creative energies in the past, he is now able to write about their relationship and find some comfort in "the verse [that] falls to the soul like dew to the pasture."

Love and Passion

Throughout the poem, the speaker expresses his great love for...