Lines 1549-1705 Summary

The narrator decides to look in the well in spite of the warning. At the bottom of the well, he sees two mirror-like crystals. These crystals are the "Perilous Mirror" that make whoever looks into them fall in love with what he or she sees reflected there. Narcissus sees his own reflection here. The narrator gazes into the crystals. In the crystals, he sees a rose plot surrounded by a hedge and filled with sweet-smelling roses. One particularly fragrant red rosebud catches the narrator's attention and he is filled with longing to pluck this rose.

Lines 1549-1705 Analysis

On the allegorical level, here the young man looks into the eyes of one woman and he begins to feel an attraction towards her.

This passage contains several powerful allegorical images, namely the magic mirrors and the rose itself.

The rose has been...