The first and longest section relates the suitor's emotional turmoil at being so madly in love with a woman who will not accept his proposal of marriage. He moves from worshipful adoration of her beauty to vindictive anger at her rejection, depicting her at times as the Platonic ideal of virtue and at others as a cruel, sadistic tease. Throughout the first section, the speaker never questions his love for the woman, only whether he can survive loving someone so dangerous to his soul.