obscure poem

[andave_ya]

poem from Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers

Here then at home, by no more storms distrest,
Folding laborious hands we sit, wings furled;
Here in close perfume lies the rode-leaf curled,
Here the sun stands and knows not east nor west,
Here no tide runs; we have come, last and best,
From the wide zone in dizzying circles hurled
To that still centre where the spinning world
Sleeps on its axis, to the heart of rest.

Lay on thy whips, O Love, that we upright,
Poised on the perilous point, in no lax bed
May sleep, as tension at the verberant core
Of music sleeps; for, if thou spare to smite,
Staggering we stoop, stooping, fall dumb and dead,
And, dying so, sleep our sweet sleep no more.

I'd love to start a discussion on this poem. I'm not very well-versed in poetry but this is in one of my favorite books. The first stanza is written by a woman feeling safe and secure at Oxford while the second is written by the lord who loves her. What exactly do you think it means?

[synesthesiac]

I like it!
Especially the way Sayers uses diction and imagery to convey the woman's inertia (Here the sun stands and knows not east nor west,
Here no tide runs; we have come, last and best)

she is generally portrayed as a very static character..

[andave_ya]

synesthesiac~thank you so much for commenting. Sayers is my favorite! author. Have you read any of her works?

[synesthesiac]

Nope, I haven't. But I must say I loved the poem. It was a little hard to get to grips with the second paragraph but with a little help I managed it (archaic language always obfuscates me :()
But I loved the poem, and I have to admit, I was very impressed when I first read her biography!