She is also described as "magic in her nearness" (7) and "soft as spring wind" (10), and white as the birches bark. The poet does not waste any time getting to physical aspect of his love - or the imperfect aspect of it. This is the source of poet's conflict - his wants her but he does not want to stain her. His human desire is in conflict with the girl's innocence.
While the poem seems to be about the physical aspect of love, we have no real evidence that anything physical occurred. We can come to this conclusion from the rest of the poem that emphasizes innocence. For instance, the girl entices him with "magic" (12), not to mention that only half of him is sheathed. Once at the beginning of the poem and then in the middle - these exclamations mean something. Here we must answer the question of to whom the poet is speaking. He could be speaking to another woman that has approached him. It is also possible that the poet is speaking to himself in that he does not want to spoil the girl's virginity with sex. It is pure and beautiful and he does not want to change her. His desire is to keep her in the unreal world of imagery and metaphor.
Another indication of the perfect...
The poet is in turmoil and he turns from his love in order to prevent tarnishing or "spoil" (Pound 2) her because she is surrounded by a "new lightness" (3). This poem reflects upon the importance of experience. Like the poets mentioned before, this poet wants us to consider every aspect of our actions. We should not only think of what we want to do but also how that
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