Never seek to tell thy love
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.
I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart,
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears--
Ah, she doth depart.
Soon as she was gone from me
A traveller came by
Silently, invisibly--
O, was no deny.
by William Blake
In this cautionary poem by William Blake, he warns us of the dangers of expressing one's love for another. The word 'tell' could also be alluding to the dangers of trying to explain 'love' itself. William Blake was a firm believer in all things natural, from natural growth and development away from a repressive society, to nature itself and the idyllic pastoral settings he has described in many of his poems. In this poem, he may also be suggesting that love should be the same, natural. It should come as naturally as the 'gentle wind', both 'silently' and 'invisibly', so in a sense you should not have to 'tell' your love, for if the other 'doth depart', it shall leave you: "trembling, cold, in ghastly fears.
The rhythm of the second stanza is also noticeably very unsettled. The first line has 8 syllables, the second has 6, the third, 7 and the fourth only 5. This unsettled and chaotic structure may also represent the unsettled result of telling thy love. As described, it shall leave you in despair. This admission of love has clearly scared his 'love' away. The repetition of 'I told my love' in the first line of the second stanza may also carry different meanings for the word 'love'. Love as a thing or feeling, and love as the embodiment of the person whom he loves.
It could be viewed that we are left with a positive feeling in the end despite the earlier despair. He cannot 'deny' his love for this 'traveller' who comes exactly as love should; 'silently, invisibly', like the 'gentle wind' he described in the first stanza. This reading would leave us with the feeling of a lesson learned also and a hopeful message that; if love develops naturally, it does not need to be told for it simply cannot be denied.
Despite it's earlier caution and unlike a lot of Blake's poems, the message left with us at the end, is, in my reading, a positive one of hope, lessons learned and love fulfilled.
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