Love After Love
Explore the poems meanings
Examine the language used by
Walcott to express his ideas


What’s 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
Love After Love
This is
impossible. So
what could it
mean?
Christian
Imagery. Is
this positive
This may mean the
narrator is entering a
new life. Or can you
see other meanings?
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,
The tone in
the first
verse seems
joyful
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
What
could
this
mean?
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.
The poem
uses a darker
tone. Why?
Prediction for the
future: positive outlook
Written in
the
second
person.
Why?
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,
Walcott talks
of discovering
yourself,
understanding
yourself
And say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
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.
Mostly this poem is iambic which
mirrors English speech patterns and
gives this poem a conversational tone
Why have you
become a
stranger to
yourself?
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?
This is a time for
If this is old
calm and
age/near
The time will come
reflection, at what
death, who
when, with elation,
stage of life might
else could the
you will greet yourself arriving
this be?
stranger be?
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 yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
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.
Does this poem have a hidden reproachful message?
Imagine the poem is post-death; what does that do to the meaning?
You come to
know yourself
again and are
pleased
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 yourself.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
You have ignored
this ‘stranger’ in
favour of wordly
things
Religious feast
with a
‘stranger’ who
loves you
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.
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 shouldn’t or that it just doesn’t matter?
Remember:






Poems can and SHOULD be interpreted in
different ways
Love After Love is generally accepted as
being a happy, positive poem but, as we’ve
seen, it can be viewed in other ways
Use phrases like:
“…could suggest…”
“…may be understood as…”
“…may be…but equally, could also be…”
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?
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?