The Kiss (Symbol)
The speaker asks his lover for a final kiss, but, at the same time, repeatedly asserts that his love for her is undying and unchanging. Thus, while the kiss has a finite duration and a definite endpoint, the relationship itself is enduring. The kiss, then, symbolizes the aspects of the relationship that are soon to be lost, in contrast to the aspects that will continue when the two are parted from each other. Since, according to the speaker, the lovers will probably never see one another again, these soon-lost elements of their relationship don't only include sexual or physical ones, but also the immediacy and intimacy of simply being together. In contrast, the speaker describes their future as an extended period of simply thinking about one another, grieving for the loss of one another, and wishing each other well.
Darkness and Light (Motif)
The speaker calls his despair "dark," saying that he sees no stars of fortune twinkling around him. Here, as in many other poems, light seems to symbolize happiness while darkness symbolizes despair and sadness. But the use of light and dark imagery goes beyond such symbolism. For the speaker, grief induces an almost literal darkness, making it hard to clearly perceive the world around him or see its beauty. Beauty and light—in the sense that light enables perception more generally—are wrapped up for him in his lover. Without her, he finds himself in a state of sensory deprivation, unable to see beyond himself.
