Tell me ur meaning of this poem?

Question

I grieve and dare not show my discontent
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate
I do yet dare not say I every meant
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate
I am and not I freeze and yet am burned
Since from myself another self I turn

My care is like my shawdow in the sun
Follows me flying, stand and lies by me doth in what I have done
His to familiar care doth make me rue it
No means I find to rid him from my breast
Till by the ends of things it be supprest
Some gentler passion slides into my mind
For I am but soft as melting snow
Be more cruel, love, or so be kind
let me or float or sink, be high or low
Or die and so forget what love are meant


Thank you please tell me your thoughts on it
This poem is by Queen Eliabeth 1

Answer 1

I grieve and dare not show my discontent- here she could be expressing how she has to act formally because of her position despite her emotional turbulence
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate- I pull this line, along with the second stanza, to indicate a love that is not allowed per her standing, perhaps with someone of lower class
I do yet dare not say I every meant
I seem stark mute but inwardly do prate
I am and not I freeze and yet am burned- burning from her turmoil or perhaps from lust or longing?
Since from myself another self I turn- there is a self she shows to the public and one she really feels

My care is like my shawdow in the sun
Follows me flying, stand and lies by me doth in what I have done
His to familiar care doth make me rue it
No means I find to rid him from my breast- she's obviously in love but there is something wrong with how she feels, her care is like my shadow in the sun could indicate a "shadow" of being wary that she carries with her or looms above her
Till by the ends of things it be supprest- at the "end" she has to supress how she feels or will be made to do so
Some gentler passion slides into my mind
For I am but soft as melting snow
Be more cruel, love, or so be kind
let me or float or sink, be high or low
Or die and so forget what love are meant- she's requesting a reprieve from what she is feeling. She wants to be able to move this love into a quieter part of her mind or be able to forget it entirely or be released so forth in death

Just my interpretation. I did take a couple college level classes in such

Answer 2

I'm an English major and interpreting poetry does not always come easy. In the first stanza, Queen Elizabeth seems to be expressing the things that come along with being queen. What a brilliant Queen she was. "I love and yet am forced to seem to hate." What I gather from this is being Queen puts her in a tough position to be stern, objective, and overall a "*****" at times. Again I think she clears that up in the last line of the first stanza. I understand this poem but it's really difficult to put Elizabeth in to words and describe what she's feeling here. I don't know what time of her life this was written. Those things come into play when interpreting or attempting to interpret. We know that Elizabeth had a great liking for Robert Devereux, I believe,but I could be wrong. I also believe that she had trouble trusting people in her surrounding.

We always seem to want an immediate answer to every poem when that is not always the case. Some poems are written merely for entertainment. Not all poems are didactic.

Answer 3

The poem is called "On Monsieur's Departure" because it was written (hypothetically) when the Duke of Alencon/Anjou, who had been courting Elizabeth, was forced to return to France forever (he died of malaria, less than three years later, at 29). It is an unusually heartfelt and brilliant piece, though, and many people think she had written it at some point previously about Robert Dudley (or possibly Thomas Seymour), and just used the opportunity of the French duke's departure (a time when she had to LOOK griefstricken in public) to publish it and thereby let out some of the grief she did in fact feel throughout her life over her "soulmate," whichever person that might have been.

Here's my take on it:

I grieve and dare not show my discontent
(I am sad but I can't show it)
I love and yet am forced to seem to hate
(I love someone/something, but have to pretend otherwise)
I do yet dare not say I ever meant
(I want to be this way, but I can't ever admit that)
I seem stark mute, but inwardly do prate
(Everyone thinks me silent, but in my head I babble endlessly)
I am and not, I freeze and yet am burned
(I am alive and yet I'm dead; I'm frozen stiff but sitting too close to a fire)
Since from myself another self I turned
(Since I turned my soulmate ["another self"] away from me.)

My care is like my shadow in the sun
(My responsibility/my grief for my soulmate is like my shadow
[-- in this stanza she makes the two griefs parallel, means both
(a) her duties as a queen and (b) her grief for her soulmate])
Follows me flying, flies when I pursue it
(If I run away from either of them, it chases me;
if I chase either one, it runs away)
It stands and lies by me, doth in what I have done
(Both are my constant companion; both make
me an imitation of myself)
His too familiar care doth make me rue it
(And the fact that both are so constant is a third grief to me)
No means I find to rid him from my breast
(And yet I can't get rid of this responsibility/this grief)
Till by the ends of things it be supprest.
(The only thing that will relieve me of either one is death.)

Some gentler passion slide into my mind
(Bring me a gentler pain, take me over
["passion" used to mean pain as well as desire])
For I am soft and made of melting snow;
(because, despite my outer toughness, I'm melting inside)
Or be more cruel, Love, and so be kind.
(Or, instead, make the pain worse)
Let me or float or sink, be high or low;
(Let me swim or drown, let me be their queen or his slave)
Or let me live with some more sweet content,
(Or just let me be at peace with my soulmate)
Or die, and so forget what love e’er meant.
(Or just be dead, so that I don't feel this pain any more.)


It's an unusually beautiful poem for several reasons: although it follows very conventional lines in terms of the usual "courtly love" piece, it is unusually passionate and complex. The first stanza is like a cry from the heart, bringing up the dualism of love; the second stanza is a masterly play on the parallels of her grief over the man, her duties of state, and her exhaustion with trying to handle the demands of both, in which she refers to all three as her "cares." The third and final stanza is like a sigh ... bringing up a third duality, life and death, and begging for love to give her one or the other, rather than constantly casting her from one to the other.

I first read and memorized this poem when I was about 10, and it's continued to be one of my favorite pieces of writing for more than 40 years now. The older I get, the more meaning I find in it, and the more true it seems -- which I think is the real test of great literature. :-)

Answer 4

Good poem. I think it refers to the dichotomy, the Ying-Yang, the irony of contradiction of the human condition.

In simple terms, you just can't win. It is the union of opposites that make the whole.

Answer 5

It's tough to be queen.

(And incidentally, I loved the first stanza, hated the second.
Good thing she kept her day job! grin)

Answer 6

Drugs are bad , mmmmmk