In “since feeling is first,” the unnamed speaker begins by making the argument that feeling must be prioritized over reason, which manifests itself in formal systems like syntax. The speaker argues that anyone who inverts this priority cannot kiss the addressee of the poem (“you”; the “lady”) with heartfelt affection or pleasure.
The form of romance which the speaker genuinely approves of is one that is intuitive, physical, and pleasurable. One must be free from the confines of reason, perhaps even be a fool, and be festive as one would be in the fertile and youthful season of spring. The speaker argues that to pursue a physical way of living and loving (expressing oneself through bodily acts like kisses) is better than to pursue elusive, cerebral ideals such as wisdom. The speaker swears by all the flowers in the world that their words are truthful.
The speaker then urges the lady, their lover, not to cry. The lady’s bodily expression of love (even the slightest one, like the fluttering of an eyelid) is superior to the best thought the speaker can produce cerebrally. The speaker encourages the lady to simply laugh and lean into their (the speaker’s) arms. Closing the poem, the speaker metaphorically observes that life is not like a paragraph and death is not like a parenthesis, and that this is why the speaker and the lady must be optimistic and hedonistic in their relationship.
