The Travail of Passion

Song Meaning

These lyrics open with a grand, almost celestial vision: a "flaming lute-thronged angelic door is wide." This sets the stage for an intense, almost divine experience where an "immortal passion breathes in mortal clay." It's a powerful, immediate image of something sacred and overwhelming entering the human realm. Yet, this divine influx isn't without its cost. The lyrics immediately pivot to a litany of suffering, drawing heavily from imagery of Christ's Passion: "the scourge, the plaited thorns, the way / Crowded with bitter faces, the wounds in palm and side." This stark contrast between the angelic opening and the brutal, specific pain suggests that profound passion, when embodied, necessitates immense sacrifice and endurance. Amidst this suffering, a tender, intimate promise emerges. The perspective shifts from enduring collective pain to a specific act of devotion: "We will bend down and loosen our hair over you." This gesture, offering "faint perfume, and be heavy with dew," provides a delicate, sensory counterpoint to the earlier harshness. It suggests a profound, almost reverent comfort offered to the one bearing the brunt of this travail. The closing lines, "Lilies of death-pale hope, roses of passionate dream," beautifully encapsulate the complex emotional landscape. They juxtapose fragility and mortality with enduring hope and vivid desire. This suggests that even through immense suffering and sacrifice, a bittersweet beauty and the persistent power of internal states—hope and dreams—can bloom, perhaps as a direct result of the passion endured.