Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BURIED LADY by PAUL VALERY

Poet Analysis

First Line: TENDERLY, HUMBLY, UPON THE CHARMING TOMB / THE UNCONSCIOUS MONUMENT
Last Line: DEATH FAR DEARER THAN LIFE.
Subject(s): DEATH; DESIRE; DEAD, THE;
Tenderly, humbly, upon the charming tomb,
The unconscious monument
Formed by your overweary grace from shade,
Surrenderings, wasteful love,
I die, I throw myself upon you, drop, despond,
But hardly have I fallen to the sepulcher
Whose sealed expanse invites me on to dust,
Than her seeming corpse, in which the life revives,
Stirs, fires me with her glance, and sinks her teeth
In my flesh-and ever tears from me a new
Death far dearer than life.



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