Old Love

The speaker in Pat Mora’s poem “Old Love” is a young person whose aunt has died at the age of 87. The speaker observes and reports their uncle’s immense grief. Apparently, the uncle and the aunt were married for “Sixty years” (Line 20), hence the title’s emphasis on the love being “old.” The poem makes clear that “old” here refers not merely to the number of years the couple spent together but also to the fact that their love matured and strengthened over the decades. This is an enduring love between people who have weathered a great deal together, probably both good and bad, and preserved their connection through it all. It is striking that the uncle keeps saying “I’ve lost my girl” (Lines 4 and 5), as if they were still young. The fact that he remembers her that way suggests that his love for her did not lose the intensity it had at the very beginning of their relationship.

The speaker employs two vivid similes to convey the uncle’s enormous grief and sense of loss. As the uncle “raise[s] his hands (Line 2) and “shake[s] his head” (Line 6), the speaker compares him to “a prophet in the Bible” (Line 3), “raising his