I find no peace, and all my war is done.
-- Speaker (Line 1)

Importance: The poem begins by introducing this powerful contradiction. It is evidently impossible for anyone to be at war and at peace at once. And yet the speaker is in this state. The line also moves from activity (not finding peace, implying a search for it) to passivity (the war "is done," requiring no apparent intervention from the speaker) in a way that demonstrates the speaker's sense of helplessness, of being trapped (1).

I fear and hope. I burn and freeze like ice.
-- Speaker (Line 2)

Importance: This line makes use of several brief, declarative statements to express the contradictory nature of the speaker's experiences. The dualities of fear/hope, burn/freeze are introduced quickly, near the beginning of the poem. This demonstrates the poem's central device to the reader. By expressing these dualities so quickly here, the reader also develops a sense of the speaker's...