First Versagraph: Celebrating Feelings for a Mate

Your love, dear man, is as lovely to me

As sweet soothing oil to the limbs of the restless,
In the first versagraph, the speaker addresses her mate, celebrating her feelings for him. She tells
him that her feelings for him give her comfort as a tired person feels when being rubbed with oil.
Of course, she dramatizes his "love," calling it "as lovely to me." The oil is "sweet" and
"soothing." A tired, dusty, "restless" individual would be restored and comforted by the likes of
such sweet oil as his love.
Second Versagraph: Pagan Influence
As clean ritual robes to the flesh of gods,
As fragrance of incense to one coming home
Hot from the smells of the street.
The speaker continues in the second versagraph to relate to her beloved how lovely his love is to
her. Not only is it as lovely as the sweet oil, but it is also "[a]s clean ritual robes to the flesh of
gods." That she would put "flesh" on "gods" reminds the reader that this is a woman writing in
ancient Egypt under the influence of a pagan religion.
The speaker then brings herself squarely back to the material level by asserting that his love is as
lovely to her as the pleasant odor of "incense to one coming home." After experiencing the
"smells of the street," the individual coming home to the "fragrance of incense" again will be
comforted and refreshed. His love makes her feel comfortable in all these ways.
Third Versagraph: The Pleasures of Physicality
It is like nipple-berries ripe in the hand,
Like the tang of grainmeal mingled with beer,
Like wine to the palate when taken with white bread.
In the third versagraph, the speaker begins a new sentence: "It is like nipple-berries ripe in the
hand." "It" refers to that lovely love she has thus far been describing. Here she brings in the
physicality of the body.
The speaker has enjoyed him carnally: his nipples are like ripe berries in her hand. He tastes
"like grainmeal mingled with beer" and "[l]ike wine to the palate when taken with white bread."
"White bread" used to be a delicacy only the rich could afford.
Fourth Versagraph: Hoping the Remain a Couple
While unhurried days come and go,
Let us turn to each other in quiet affection,
Walk in peace to the edge of old age.
And I shall be with you each unhurried day,
A woman given her one wish; to see
For a lifetime the face of her Lord.
In the final versagraph, the speaker states rather prosaically that she hopes they will stay together
their whole lives. But as she promulgates this wish, she qualifies the life she hopes to lead with
"her lord," that is, the head of her household, her husband.
The speaker hopes that their life will be leisurely with "unhurried days." She hopes their
affection will be "quiet" and that they "[w]alk in peace to the edge of old age." She will be a
"woman given her wish" if she can see his face "[f]or a lifetime."