my lute awake

I think the poem is about courtly love but rejection of that love. The first five lines express the futility of the song in that the effort of the narrator and his lute will be in vain; his song will not win her back and he has given up the pursuit. The comparison of his rejection being more cruel than the repeated rejection of the sea by the rocks is a passionate yet violent image. If he has rejected her punishment of him, then the narrator has broken a natural cycle akin to the tides. He says he is ‘past remedy’ meaning beyond cure, beyond hope or, more likely, beyond playing the role of wounded lover. Instead, he bares his emotions for the perusal of an audience. His conclusion here involves his instrument – ‘my lute and I have done’ - suggesting that the poet will sing this tale no more.