Reread the last stanza of “The Fight” and write one sentence for each half of the stanza, translating the poetic verse into prose.

Question

To worship or destroy beauty—
That double edge of impulse
I recognize, by which we live;

My sentence

But also the bitter paradox
Of betraying love to harm,
Then lungeing, too late,
With fists, to its defence.
My sentence

When Montague refers to the “double edge of impulse,” what does he mean?
My response:

Answer 1

My sentence for the first half: The conflicting desires to either celebrate or annihilate beauty are the two sides of the same motivational force that I understand as central to our existence.

My sentence for the second half: There is also a painful contradiction in the way we sometimes betray love in order to hurt it, only to then rush in too late to protect it with our own efforts.

My response: When Montague refers to the "double edge of impulse," he means that our instincts and desires can lead us to both create beauty and destroy it, illustrating the complex and often conflicting nature of human emotions and actions.