stanza 6 contains a reference to Sinai, which no
doubt means Mount Sinai, the place where
Moses encounters God in the Bible. The sugges-
tion seems to be that the ex-lover was Moses and
the speaker was his God; the speaker even refers
to him as the one she chose, just as God chose the
children of Israel as his special people.
Yet the ex-lover has turned his back on his
God and is making do with an image or an imi-
tation, a delusion perhaps, someone who makes
bad food, food that may have seemed more to
the ex-lover’s taste originally but which now
threatens to sicken him. In fact, the speaker
suggests that her ex-lover’s health in general is
threatened; she speaks of a wound or ulcer or
pain that he must suffer. The imagery conjures
up a sense of actual physical illness. The speaker
is perhaps trying to make her ex-lover feel ill.
Stanza 7
Besides illness, the ex-lover is suffering also, so
the speaker suggests, from shame. It is just a
suggestion, of course, as is everything the
speaker says about her former lover. In fact,
the things she says are technically not even sug-
gestions, just questions—but every question is
heavy with the weight of accusation. In the sev-
enth stanza, the speaker first asks the lover if he
loves the new woman and then provides an alter-
native, wondering if instead he feels shame. The
idea here is that someone who mingled with gods
should feel shame to have lowered himself to an
ordinary woman.
The shame is compared to the reins of Zeus
in this stanza, again a reference to a deity, this
time one from ancient Greece. The image con-
jured up is one of Zeus as a charioteer lashing the
poor lover, who must be some sort of horse. It is
as if the speaker has acquired the power of the
sorceress Circe, who is able to turn a man into a
beast. This perhaps is part of her revenge, part of
her jealousy.
Stanza 8
The speaker here suggests that the ex-lover must
be suffering from a bad conscience, presumably
for abandoning her. In this stanza she also won-
ders if he still sings, which may really be a sug-
gestion that he no longer does anything joyful,
singing being an example of the joyful things the
two of them used to do when they were still
together.
Stanza 9
The speaker returns to the notion of price again
in the ninth stanza, referring to the new woman
as goods from the market which cost too high a
price, the price presumably being the vulgarity
referred to in stanza 4. The speaker also calls the
other woman mere plaster of Paris, whereas she,
the speaker, is Carrara marble, a type of marble
considered to be of high quality. During the
Renaissance Michelangelo used Carrara marble
for his famous sculpture of David. This double
metaphor, therefore, once again compares the
new woman unfavorably with the speaker; the
new woman is like some ordinary plaster, as
opposed to the fine marble that best describes
the speaker.Stanza 10
The metaphor in the ninth stanza about marble
leads into a slight digression in the tenth stanza,
in which the speaker talks of a god made from a
block, presumably a block of marble; this is a
statue she is talking about, one that has been
destroyed. It is as if a god once existed, in this
case perhaps meaning the whole relationship
rather than just the speaker, or perhaps the
speaker again is the god. The destruction of the
god thus may mean the destruction of the rela-
tionship, the divine relationship between the
speaker and the ex-lover; or it may mean the
destruction of the speaker herself, who is unable
to live without her worshipful ex-lover. In a way,
both interpretations come to the same thing, for
without a worshipper, how can there be a god? It
is as if the speaker’s whole existence was bound
up with that of her worshipful lover, and now
that he is gone, she has been smashed to pieces—
or at least their relationship has.
The speaker goes on to compare herself to
Lilith, in Babylonian mythology a seductive
demon and in Jewish folklore Adam’s first
wife, before Eve. Being like Lilith might not
seem entirely positive, but the demonic aspect
of the woman seems, at least the way the speaker
puts it, a small price to pay for the magic and
divinity of a relationship with her. Or perhaps
demonic power is something the speaker thinks
should be thought appealing.Stanza 11
In this stanza the speaker again compares her
rival to a market commodity or someone of the
earth, as opposed to someone with a sixth sense,
like the speaker presumably. There is also talk ofAnAttemptatJealousy