The poem
Your hooves have stamped at the black margin of the wood, Even where horrible green parrots call and swing. My works are all stamped down into the sultry mud. I knew that horse-play, knew it for a murderous thing. What wholesome sun has ripened is wholesome food to eat, And that alone; yet I, being driven half insane Because of some green wing, gathered old mummy wheat In the mad abstract dark and ground it grain by grain And after baked it slowly in an oven; but now I bring full-flavoured wine out of a barrel found Where seven Ephesian topers slept and never knew When Alexander's empire passed, they slept so sound. Stretch out your limbs and sleep a long Saturnian sleep; I have loved you better than my soul for all my words, And there is none so fit to keep a watch and keep Unwearied eyes upon those horrible green birds.
Here is the poem paraphrased in my words: You have entered a dark foreboding place, Where malicious envy dwells and moves. My pride has been broken and abused. I was aware that relationships were a bad thing. Although healing grows with time, Only; I have driven almost crazy by envy and therefore searched for ways to regenerate my heart Which turned out to be a tedious process. But now I am ready to find love again…
Read the whole commentHere is the poem paraphrased in my words:
You have entered a dark foreboding place,
Where malicious envy dwells and moves.
My pride has been broken and abused.
I was aware that relationships were a bad thing.
Although healing grows with time,
Only; I have driven almost crazy by envy
and therefore searched for ways to regenerate my heart
Which turned out to be a tedious process.
But now I am ready to find love again
And have stolen you from those
Who do not fully appreciate you.
So rest and sleep in peaceful slumber
For I adore you more than I can say
And because I have had so much taken from me
There is no one better to protect you
From those greedy, jealous eyes.
This poem to me is about a man who has been so badly hurt that he warns a prospect that his heart is like a black forest, guarded by green parrots. The color green can easily be translated to envy or jealousy. Maybe he doesn't know how to love but was more possessive in his previous realtionship which ended in someone leaving him and "stamping" on his pride (works). He tried to regenerate it (mummy wheat myth) but realized only time(ripening from the sun) can heal wounds. However, now that he has found this girl who was used but not appreciated (the drunkards with the wine) he is determined to "love" her and protect her from all of the envious "eyes" that supposedly stole his first "love" away, again implying that he is possessive and paranoid. The "love" he speaks of maybe just be lust. She could be so beautiful and he so enraptured with it that he doesn't even know how to respond to it.