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NL888 Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
Does "hours" mean "life" here?
Context:
I were as im my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderigs over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave , a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
I were as im my boyhood, and could be
The comrade of thy wanderigs over Heaven,
As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision; I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Oh, lift me as a wave , a leaf, a cloud!
I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed!
A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed
One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud.
Top answer
NL888 Does "hours" mean "life" here? Close, but no, not exactly. More likely "time".
- NL888 Does "hours" mean "life" here?
- Close, but no, not exactly.
- More likely "time".
- It's about aging.
- I suppose he could have said "years" instead of "hours".
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5 Answers
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NL888Does "hours" mean "life" here?Close, but no, not exactly. More likely "time". It's about aging. I suppose he could have said "years" instead of "hours".
CJ
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Thanks.
Does "As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision" mean
"At that time, when I wished to surpass your speed in the sky, that wish seemed so true, it was rarely just an illusion"?
Does "As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed
Scarce seem'd a vision" mean
"At that time, when I wished to surpass your speed in the sky, that wish seemed so true, it was rarely just an illusion"?
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NL888then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed Scarce seem'd a visionat that time, when it was hardly even a vision to surpass your speed (in the sky)
~
at that time — a time when I would barely have even imagined that I could surpass your speed (in the sky)
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In your paraphrase you seem to have made this into a complete se
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Thanks.
The complete sentence is what follows:
I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Does it mean "So I would never have tried hard in prayer (to *** in the way with you) when I was in my urgent need"?
Plus, is "ne'er" just pronounced as /ne?/? Not /nev?/?
The complete sentence is what follows:
I would ne'er have striven
As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.
Does it mean "So I would never have tried hard in prayer (to *** in the way with you) when I was in my urgent need"?
Plus, is "ne'er" just pronounced as /ne?/? Not /nev?/?
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NL888The complete sentence is what follows: I would ne'er have striven As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need.No. The rest of the sentence which has a description of "that time" comes before, starting at the beginning of the excerpt you posted at the top of the thread. The semi-colon ends that clause. You have given here the sentence that comes next.
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