The Full Text of “Passion”
The Full Text of “Passion”
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“Passion” Introduction
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"Passion" appears in Kathleen Raine's first volume of poetry, Stone and Flower (1943). Its speaker meditates on the world outside after experiencing "heartbreak." Wrestling with pain and longing, the speaker hears a mysterious voice from the "sky" telling them that they already have everything they desire. The world is enough in itself, and far from being alone, the speaker is profoundly connected with everything in it. Inspired by this revelation, the speaker has a religious vision of universal "passion" and eternal love. Ultimately, the poem suggests that, painful as heartbreak can be, no one is ever truly alone in the world.
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“Passion” Summary
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I lay in a state of longing. The sight of the sky hurt me. Every cloud I saw looked like a boat drifting away without me. Every tree had the thing my spirit didn't have: calm.
I waited for the person I was pining for to call me, but my phone stayed silent. I grew sick with the famous feeling called heartbreak, which resembles death in life.
My familiar, ordinary language seemed to abandon the hand I write with. The underworld ghosts in Homer's epic poems and the conch shells on the shore (which seem to hold the ocean's primitive roar) were unavailable to my imagination.
Suddenly, the sky addressed me in plain language, which felt as recognizable as my own heart and more intimate than love. The sky told my spirit: "You already have everything you want.
"Understand that you're as old as the clouds, wind, stars, unresting oceans, and woodland creatures. Their nature is the same as your own.
"Heal your heart and have courage. Whether you're dead in the grave or alive and breathing, you're connected to everything in this world, from flowers to tigers."
After the sky spoke, everything in sight looked divine and eternal, and every new cell in nature blazed with a passionate, sacred fire.
I had a vision of the world as it would be on the biblical Day of Judgment, when the war in heaven ends, the sky vanishes, and everything turns into immortal light and love.
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“Passion” Themes
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Heartbreak and Healing
Kathleen Raine's "Passion" illustrates the world-stopping pain of heartbreak—but it also argues that such agony doesn't last forever. The poem's speaker is grieving some lost love, the pain of which makes them feel utterly isolated from the rest of the world: the clouds sail past without the speaker, and the trees possess a "tranquility," or sense of peace, that the speaker's miserable soul "lack[s]." Waiting for an implied ex-lover to call on the "telephone," they explain that their "body grew weak / With the well-known and mortal death, heartbreak." In other words, they're so depressed and lonely that they feel like the living dead. They're so shattered that their "human speech" seems to have deserted them; they can't even articulate their despair, so painful is this heartache.
Soon enough, however, the "sky" comforts the speaker by reminding them that they already have what they "desire" (implicitly, love and connection) because they "share" the world with every other creature in it. The speaker was "born along with" those same "clouds" that earlier appeared to pass them by; the speaker is as much a part of nature as the "winds," "stars, and ever-moving seas." The sharp, isolating pain of lost love dulls when one realizes that they're never actually alone—in fact, quite the opposite. The sky thus instructs the speaker to "Lift up your heart again without fear." Heartbreak is temporary, the speaker realizes, and understanding one's connection to the rest of creation can help people open their hearts to love again.
Absorbing this revelation, the speaker no longer misses their old, passionate relationship. In fact, they discover an equally intense "passion" in all the life around them. (Here, the word "passion" has not only romantic but religious overtones; in the Christian tradition, it's associated with Christ's martyrdom on behalf of humanity.) In this way, the poem draws an implied analogy between healing from "heartbreak" and having one's "death" redeemed by eternal life. Both, the speaker suggests, require an escape from one's petty personal troubles into an awareness of one's place in the larger universe. By narrating the speaker's healing, the poem offers comfort to sad or lonely readers, just as the sky offers comfort to the speaker. It suggests that even the worst heartbreak and loneliness will pass.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-24
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Unity with Nature and God
"Passion" begins with its speaker, reeling from a recent heartbreak, feeling deeply alienated from the world around them. Yet the "sky" comforts the speaker by assuring them that they're inherently part of nature, and thus that they're never alone. What's more, the poem suggests that this connection with nature connects people to "eternity"—that is, to God—because nature and "eternity" are in fact the same thing.
The speaker at first feels completely at odds with the world outside. The sky seems to "wound[]" the speaker, the "cloud[s]" seem to have abandoned them, and the "tree[s]" seem to possess a "tranquillity" that the speaker's "soul" craves. It's as though nature's calm is mocking the speaker's turmoil. What lifts the speaker's spirits is the realization that their alienation is an illusion, because everything in nature, including humans, is connected to everything else. A voice from the "sky"—apparently the voice of nature and/or God—tells the speaker that they were "born" along with the "Clouds, winds, and stars," as well as the "ever-moving seas" and "forest dwell[ing]" creatures. Indeed, the speaker shares "This world [...] with the flower and with the tiger"; they're connected even to the most distant and dissimilar creatures.
Having received the sky's message, the speaker suddenly perceives everything "visible" around them as "immortal." Each "cell new born" seems filled with "the holy fire of passion": even the tiniest living thing in nature reveals itself to be divine. The world is full of God's passion and glory, and even a single cell is part of that eternal creation. The speaker's connection to nature does more than soothe the pain of a particular heartache: it reminds the speaker that their soul is interwoven with eternity itself.
Newly hopeful, the speaker envisions a time "When the war ends"—alluding to the war in heaven in the biblical Book of Revelation, but also suggesting a time when earthly troubles, including their own inner conflicts, are over. The speaker also envisions the sky that had initially seemed so hurtful and alienating "roll[ing] away" to reveal "light, love and eternity." People can find solace, the poem suggests, in recognizing their place amid God’s loving, divine, and "immortal" creation.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-24
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Passion”
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Lines 1-6
Full of desire ...
... mortal death, heartbreak.The poem begins with its speaker recalling a low point in their life. The speaker is never named or gendered: they might be a stand-in for the poet or a separate persona entirely.
The speaker recalls lying down somewhere indoors, "Full of desire" for some unnamed person or thing. As they watch the scene outdoors, presumably through a window, they take no comfort from anything in nature.
In fact, nature seems hostile, mocking, and superior. The speaker recalls "the sky wounding me" in some metaphorical way—perhaps with its piercing brightness, perhaps with its cold indifference. Meanwhile, "Each cloud" in that sky reminds the speaker of "a ship without me sailing"; in other words, it makes the speaker feel abandoned, or as if they're missing out on some grand adventure. "Each tree" in the landscape seems to "Possess[]" what the speaker's "soul lack[s]," and wishes for most: "tranquillity." In other words, while the speaker's in turmoil, the trees seem calmly at ease.
This attribution of human feelings to nature is called the pathetic fallacy, and it's an early example of the speaker's tendency to personify or anthropomorphize the natural world around them. Even when they feel alone and detached from nature, as they do here, they view nature as remarkably human.
The second stanza reveals the root cause of all this distress: "heartbreak." The speaker has been through a breakup and isn't over their ex. They find themselves in a classic post-breakup situation: "Waiting for the longed-for voice to speak / Through the mute telephone." Of course, the call never comes, and the speaker's "body" feels "weak" with "heartbreak"—which they call "the well-known and mortal death." That is, heartbreak is an old and storied feeling, and it feels like death in life.
These first six lines establish the form that the rest of the poem will follow: tercet stanzas rhyming AAA, BBB, and so on. The consistent structure gives the poem a balanced, harmonious quality, while the consistent end-stopping of stanzas (all end with periods) gives it a stately, measured pace. These qualities are at odds with the speaker's initial turmoil, but they suit what will be the dominant mood of the poem: confident, "Passion[ate]" appreciation for the world.
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Lines 7-9
The language I ...
... of the beach. -
Lines 10-15
Then the sky ...
... your nature is. -
Lines 16-21
Lift up your ...
... fire of passion. -
Lines 22-24
This world I ...
... love and eternity.
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“Passion” Symbols
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The Conches
In the depths of "heartbreak," the speaker feels that "the savage conches of the beach" (along with "Homer's ghosts," or the underworld spirits of Greek myth) are "out of reach." Beaches are often associated with peace and relaxation, so it's possible the speaker means that peace of mind eludes them; they can't relax among the seashells, either literally or imaginatively.
However, the word "savage" (wild, rough, close to nature) points in another direction, as does the overall context of the statement. The speaker has just mentioned that their own "language" seems to have abandoned them, along with the wisdom of literature, represented by "Homer's ghosts." In other words, they're suffering from writer's block and can't seem to find meaning in their reading.
As such, the "savage conches of the beach" might symbolize another voice they can't get in touch with: the voice of nature. After all, folk tradition says that conch shells contain the sound of the ocean in their hollows. That these shells are symbolically "out of reach" suggests that the speaker can't find harmony with (or meaning in) nature, any more than they can in writing or books.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 8-9: “and out of reach / Were Homer’s ghosts, the savage conches of the beach.”
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The Flower and the Tiger
The sky's message to the speaker includes the insight: "This world you with the flower and with the tiger share." Both the flower and tiger have symbolic meanings here: they represent tameness and delicacy on the one hand, savagery and strength on the other. Both are generally considered beautiful, but in drastically different ways. The point, then, is that the speaker is connected with all of nature, including beautiful creatures great and small.
For an English poet like Raine, a tiger would also be considered an exotic animal (it's native to Asia), whereas flowers are common and close at hand. So the sky's message might also imply that the speaker is connected to creatures near and far.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 18: “This world you with the flower and with the tiger share.'”
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“Passion” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anthropomorphism
The speaker projects their emotions onto their natural surroundings in the poem's first stanza. For example, the speaker says that the trees possess a "tranquillity" that the speaker's own "soul lack[s]." This is a pretty clear example of pathetic fallacy, as trees can be physically motionless but not spiritually "tranquil[]." Similarly, the speaker imagines "the sky" as metaphorically "wounding" them in what seems to be a cruel, personal way. The sky isn't capable of deliberately hurting the speaker, nor can it feel vindictiveness or cruelty.
This pathetic fallacy illustrates how the speaker is feeling. Reeling from heartbreak, the speaker perceives hostility in the sky above and laments that the trees seem so happy and at ease. On the one hand, then, pathetic fallacy highlights the speaker's initial sense of separation from their surroundings. Notice, however, that even when the speaker claims to feel totally disconnected from nature, they imagine natural things as human-like—hinting that they have something in common with nature after all.
Where anthropomorphism appears in the poem:- Line 1: “the sky wounding me”
- Lines 2-3: “each tree / Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquillity”
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Repetition
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Allusion
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Simile
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End-Stopped Line
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Repetition
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"Passion" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Tranquillity
- Forsook
- Conches
- Homer's ghosts
- Forest dwellers
- Passion
- Judgment day
- The war
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(Location in poem: Line 3: “Possessing what my soul lacked, tranquillity.”)
Calm; serenity.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Passion”
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Form
"Passion" consists of eight three-line stanzas, or tercets. The three lines of each stanza rhyme with one another; some rhymes are exact and others are slant. This structure creates an overall sense of order and harmony, in keeping with the poem's message about the unity of humanity, nature, and God.
In the Western poetic tradition, rhymed tercets are most famously associated with Dante's Divine Comedy, whose speaker journeys from hell (the Inferno) to heaven (the Paradiso). Although "Passion" doesn't use Dante's rhyme scheme (terza rima), it does use a meter (loose iambic pentameter) that's similar to Dante's 11-syllable lines. In other words, Raine may have meant the poem's form to echo Dante's poem in a faint, subtle way. "Passion," too, traces a (much briefer!) spiritual journey from something like despair toward the "light" of faith and hope.
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Meter
The poem uses a loose iambic pentameter, meaning its lines contain 10 syllables arranged in a da-DUM, da-DUM rhythm. There are many exceptions throughout the poem, however. For example, line 1 has six strong stresses and an irregular rhythm:
Full of | desire | I lay, | the sky | wounding | me,
In fact, while line 4 comes close, the first example of perfect iambic pentameter doesn't arrive until line 7:
The lan- | guage I | knew best, | my hu- | man speech
The meter becomes a little more settled in the second half of the poem, perhaps reflecting the inner "tranquillity" the speaker regains. But the meter never becomes totally regular—maybe because the speaker also regains a sense of "passion," which rebels against strict structures (such as the "cell[s]" of living creatures). In general, the poet's handling of meter feels less rule-determined than intuitive and organic, in keeping with the poem's vision of harmony with nature.
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Rhyme Scheme
Each of the poem's stanzas contains three lines that rhyme with each other. The poem's rhyme scheme is thus AAA BBB CCC (and so on).
Some of these rhymes are exact ("me"/"tree"/"tranquillity" in the first stanza), while others are slant rhymes ("turn"/"born"/"passion," lines 19-21). The poem's mix of perfect and imperfect rhymes gives its structure a little flexibility, just as its loose iambic meter does. As a result, the poem flows organically (rather than strictly following rules), but still sounds lush and harmonious—a good blend for a poem about finding harmony with the natural world.
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“Passion” Speaker
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The poem's first-person speaker is never named, and their age, gender, nationality, etc. are never revealed. They are probably meant to be the voice of Kathleen Raine herself, but nothing in the poem specifically links the poet and speaker. As a result, they come off as a kind of Everyperson, easy for any reader to identify with.
Similarly, the speaker's situation is fairly generic. They have experienced some kind of "heartbreak" that has left their "soul" in turmoil. They are "Waiting" by the phone for a call, presumably from their ex-lover, but the phone remains "mute." In the meantime, they are experiencing writer's block—"speech" has deserted the "fingers" they write with—and imaginative frustration. The voices of "Homer's ghosts" (the underworld spirits depicted in Homer's Odyssey) and the "conch[]" shells on the seashore (which are sometimes said to contain the "voice" of the ocean) seem equally "out of reach." The speaker feels cut off from both literature and nature, and from any source of meaning or comfort.
Suddenly, they experience a revelation that arrives as a voice from the "sky." This appears to represent the voice of nature, God, or both. The voice tells them that they are connected to all things—they are not alone—and encourages them to love again: to "Lift up your heart again without fear." The speaker's sense of "passion" and faith in God/nature/the universe is restored.
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“Passion” Setting
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"Passion" seems to take place indoors, even as its speaker mainly focuses on the world outside. The poem begins with the speaker lying down (perhaps in bed), full of pain and longing, staring out the window at the "sky," "cloud[s]," and "tree[s]." The speaker is "Waiting" for a phone call from a "longed-for voice"—the voice of a former lover—but the call never comes.
As the poem goes on, the indoor scene fades into the background, and the speaker concentrates solely on the outdoor scene. Their imagination ranges from the "ever-moving seas / And forest dwellers" to the "tiger[s]" of faraway lands. This shift mirrors the speaker's emotional shift from loneliness and alienation to a sense of deep connection with the entire natural world.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Passion”
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Literary Context
Kathleen Raine (1908-2003) was an English poet, scholar, and memoirist. "Passion" appears in her first poetry collection, Stone and Flower, published in 1943 alongside illustrations by the artist Barbara Hepworth.
Raine's work is generally meditative and spiritual, drawing on elements of Christian mysticism, Neoplatonist philosophy, and the psychological theories of Carl Jung. "Passion," for example, includes references to the apocalyptic "judgment day" from the biblical Book of Revelation.
Raine's scholarship centered on the British Romantic poet William Blake (1757-1827), an intense, spiritually driven writer and a clear influence on Raine's poetry. (The "tiger" in line 18 might be read as a Blakean touch, since "The Tyger" is one of Blake's most famous poems.) Indeed, much of Raine's poetry features a lyrical appreciation of nature's beauty and divinity that draws from the Romantic tradition.
Among her contemporaries, Raine was linked to the writers Philip Sherrard, Keith Critchlow, and Brian Keeble, with whom she co-founded the literary magazine Temenos and the Temenos Academy in London (see below). A long-lived and much-decorated poet, her honors included the Queen's Gold Medal for Literature.
Historical Context
"Passion" doesn't make any direct reference to historical events. It focuses on a timeless, generic natural landscape of "sky," "tree[s]," etc., in keeping with its emphasis on "immortal[ity]" and "eternity." A flurry of topical references would likely undercut the poem's core message: namely, that everything in the human and natural worlds is part of an ancient, eternal web of being. Still, it's clear that the poem takes place in relatively modern times, since the speaker is in the familiar situation of "Waiting" by the "telephone." (Home telephones didn't become common until the early decades of the 20th century.)
Raine was 35 years old when she published the collection in which "Passion" appears, and she had by all accounts already experienced plenty of passion and heartache herself. By this time, she had also ended her unhappy marriage to her first husband and married her second.
In this poem and others from Stone and Flower, Raine also begins to develop the spiritual ideas that, in later life, prompted her to co-found the Temenos Academy of Integral Studies. This small institution bills itself as "an educational charity which offers education in philosophy and the arts in the light of the sacred traditions of East and West."
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More “Passion” Resources
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External Resources
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The Poet's Life — Read a short biography of Kathleen Raine via the Poetry Foundation.
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More on Raine's Life and Work — Raine's 2003 obituary in the Guardian.
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The Poet Lectures — Listen to four of Raine's lectures on poetry and the imagination.
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Raine and Temenos Academy — Information on the spiritual/philosophical academy Raine founded.
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An Interview with the Poet — Watch a late-life interview with Kathleen Raine.
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