The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain...
The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain, Down an ideal stream they ever float, And sailing on Pactolus in a boat, Drown soul and sense, while wistfully they strain Weak eyes upon the glistering sands that robe The understream. The wise could he behold Cathedralled caverns of thick-ribbed gold And branching silvers of the central globe, Would marvel from so beautiful a sight How scorn and ruin, pain and hate could flow: But Hatred in a gold cave sits below, Pleached with her hair, in mail of argent light Shot into gold, a snake her forehead clips And skins the colour from her trembling lips.
The pallid thunderstricken sigh for gain... - meaning Summary
Greed's Gilded Corruption
Tennyson depicts people drifting along an "ideal" stream toward Pactolus—an image of seductive wealth—who sacrifice soul and reason for glittering sands. Even if a wise observer saw the cavernous riches beneath, the poem reveals that beauty and gold conceal moral decay: Hatred resides in a golden cave, wrapped in shining armor and a snake. The poem contrasts outward splendor with hidden corruption, warning that riches mask ruin and hatred.
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