Love After Love

1
Love After Love

• Explore the poems meanings
• Examine the language used by Walcott to express
  his ideas

2
Whats the poem about?

• This poem is about self-discovery.
• Walcott suggests that we spend years assuming an
  identity, but eventually discover who we really
  are
• This is like two different people meeting and
  making friends and sharing a meal together

3
Love After Love
The tone in the first verse seems joyful
The time will come when, with elation you will
greet yourself arriving at your own door, in
your own mirror and each will smile at the
other's welcome, And say, sit here. Eat. You
will love again the stranger who was your
self.Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
This is impossible. So what could it mean?
What could this mean?
Christian Imagery. Is this positive
All your life, whom you ignored for another,
who knows you by heart. Take down the love
letters from the bookshelf, The photographs,
the desperate notes, peel your own image from
the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
This may mean the narrator is entering a new
life. Or can you see other meanings?
The poem uses a darker tone. Why?
4
Prediction for the future positive outlook
Walcott talks of discovering yourself,
understanding yourself
The time will comewhen, with elation,you will
greet yourself arrivingat your own door, in your
own mirror,and each will smile at the other's
welcome,And say, sit here. Eat.You will love
again the stranger who was yourself.Give wine.
Give bread. Give back your heartto itself, to
the stranger who has loved youall your life,
whom you ignoredfor another, who knows you by
heart.Take down the love letters from the
bookshelf,the photographs, the desperate
notes,peel your own image from the mirror.Sit.
Feast on your life.
Written in the second person. Why?
Why have you become a stranger to yourself?
Mostly this poem is iambic which mirrors English
speech patterns and gives this poem a
conversational tone
5
Why have you become a stranger to yourself?
We spend our lives accommodating others and thus
our true self becomes a stranger. Could the poem
be suggesting that this is a bad thing but one
from which we will recover?
We have ignored ourselves in order to accommodate
a lover/partner but this partner could never know
us as well as this stranger will.
Pick out quotations that support both views. Are
there any that disprove either view?
Are there any other interpretations?
6
This is a time for calm and reflection, at what
stage of life might this be?
If this is old age/near death, who else could the
stranger be?
The time will comewhen, with elation,you will
greet yourself arrivingat your own door, in your
own mirror,and each will smile at the other's
welcome,And say, sit here. Eat.You will love
again the stranger who was yourself.Give wine.
Give bread. Give back your heartto itself, to
the stranger who has loved youall your life,
whom you ignoredfor another, who knows you by
heart.Take down the love letters from the
bookshelf,the photographs, the desperate
notes,peel your own image from the mirror.Sit.
Feast on your life.
7
Does this poem have a hidden reproachful message?
Imagine the poem is post-death what does that
do to the meaning?
The time will comewhen, with elation,you will
greet yourself arrivingat your own door, in your
own mirror,and each will smile at the other's
welcome,And say, sit here. Eat.You will love
again the stranger who was yourself.Give wine.
Give bread. Give back your heartto itself, to
the stranger who has loved youall your life,
whom you ignoredfor another, who knows you by
heart.Take down the love letters from the
bookshelf,the photographs, the desperate
notes,peel your own image from the mirror.Sit.
Feast on your life.
You come to know yourself again and are pleased
Religious feast with a stranger who loves you
You have ignored this stranger in favour of
wordly things
Remove the false image of yourself from the
mirror see the truth
Perhaps we ignore God and focus on ourselves and
our lives. Could Walcott be suggesting we
shouldnt or that it just doesnt matter?
8
Remember

• Poems can and SHOULD be interpreted in different
  ways
• Love After Love is generally accepted as being a
  happy, positive poem but, as weve seen, it can
  be viewed in other ways
• Use phrases like
• could suggest
• may be understood as
• may bebut equally, could also be

9
Use your notes and answer the following in full
sentences, using quotations when appropriate

• What do you think this poem means? Why does the
  poet imagine someone as being like two different
  people at the same time?
• How important is it for us to recognize what we
  are really like and accept ourselves for this?
• Why is the poem written to you rather than
  about me? Is the poet giving advice to
  everyone?
• Why does the poem use images of feasting?

10
Other Cultures?

• Walcott is West Indian with a strong Methodist
  upbringing
• This poem sees him using Christian religious
  imagery in a positive, constructive manner
• Are there any other poems in the cluster which
  use religious imagery?