Where, like a pillow on a bed / A pregnant bank swell’d up to rest / The violet’s reclining head, / Sat we two, one another’s best.
-- Speaker (Lines 1 –4)

Importance: These opening four lines, sometimes printed as a complete quatrain or four-line stanza, establish the poem’s setting and initiate its exploration of the complementary roles of soul and body in love. The subtle references to childbirth along with the restful diction create a relaxing and sensuous tone for the poem, while the inclusion of the violet in this scene hints at a coming challenge to modesty. Though they are sitting together and apparently hold great regard for each other, the phrase “one another’s best” (4) demonstrates that in this pre-ecstatic moment, the lovers maintain a degree of separation. By the end of the poem, they will just be “one” (74).

As ‘twixt two equal armies fate / Suspends uncertain victory, / Our souls (which to...
-- Speaker (Lines 13 – 16)