Sun, wax and clay

Meaning

An unnamed poet compares his mistress’s unequal or changing aspect with the sun that softens wax, hardens clay and makes new bodies from those it has undone. The opposition lies in effects upon differing recipients, not in two contradictory solar substances. Nuysement places the verse after his argument that the world continually remakes one thing from another rather than allowing total annihilation. The surrounding strange generation stories are themselves qualified as more worthy of wonder than belief. The lyric comparison consequently illustrates transformation; it neither identifies the poet nor authenticates every preceding marvel.