Love After Love

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1976

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

“Love After Love” is a 15-line poem organized into four stanzas. The line lengths and metrical units in each line differ, and the poem is written in second person as a direct address to the reader or audience. “Love After Love” is Postmodernist in its approach and content. Stylistically, the use of free-verse and enjambment allow the poem to stand out from more traditionally formed poems.

“Love After Love” reads as a four-course meal laid out before the reader, in order to encourage them to “sit and feast” upon their life (Line 15) by giving “wine. Giv[ing] bread. Giv[ing] back your heart / to itself” (Lines 8-9). One of the motifs that marks the poem is the use of the meal, or sitting down and breaking bread with the inner self, in the way one would with an old friend or lover. The content of the poem is also enhanced by its form, which breaks down into a series of undefined courses in order to drive home the message: Feast upon your own life.

Walcott encourages the reader to look at themselves as something to learn, feast upon, and enjoy—instead of investing time in romantic love or love outside the self, Walcott encourages the reader to enjoy loving themselves. The poem flows easily from one stanza to another, and the recurrent orders to “sit here. Eat” (Line 6), “Give wine. Give bread” (Line 8), and “Sit. Feast on your life” (Line 15) give the poem its momentum.

Enjambment

“Love After Love” is heavy on enjambment, which is the continuation of sentences without punctuated end-stops or typically-placed line and stanza breaks. The first six lines of the poem function as one sentence, and the last two sentences in the poem flow through two stanzas and four lines each. The use of enjambment, particularly at the beginning and ending of the poem, provides a sense of rolling momentum.

The beginning and ending of the poem both illustrate an “opening” for the reader to get to know themselves, and the open flow of the enjambed lines provides the room and sensation needed to encourage a reunion between the reader and their forgotten inner self. The mid-section of the poem is noticeably not enjambed; it features four short, end-stopped sentences that come in quick succession in only three lines: “Eat. / You will love again the stranger who was your self. / Give wine. Give bread” (Lines 6-8). The use of end-stopped lines directly in the middle of the poem causes a slowing effect, which is meant to emphasize the meeting and conversation that comes with the reunion of the “you” and “the stranger who has loved you” (Line 9).

Diction

Whenever reading Walcott, diction is important to address due to his usual blending of English and Caribbean-Creole French dialects. Often, Walcott blends the two in order to create a realistic picture of Saint Lucia and the linguistic effects of colonialism on the population. However, “Love After Love” does not delve into setting or a sense of place like many of Walcott’s other poems. “Love After Love” uses simple, straightforward diction to investigate the nature of love and self-understanding. Light on figurative language, “Love After Love” is primarily concerned with using one or two key metaphors and motifs (the meal and the “self,” halved into the stranger and the “you”) to deliver a message about the importance of self-actualization through art and love.