Love After Love Summary & Analysis
by Derek Walcott

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  • “Love After Love” Introduction

    • "Love After Love" is a poem by Nobel Prize-winning author Derek Walcott, originally published in his collection Sea Grapes (1976). The short poem, one of Walcott's most popular, urges people who have been disappointed in love to get back in touch with their authentic selves. It suggests that this process of self-rediscovery will be at least as thrilling as ordinary romance—and possibly more fulfilling.

  • “Love After Love” Summary

    • The speaker promises those who are heartbroken that they'll find happiness again. They will do so by getting back in touch with their true selves: an experience the speaker compares to greeting yourself happily at the door, or in the mirror, and inviting yourself to a meal.

      The speaker further compares this experience to falling back in love with yourself after a period of estrangement. The speaker tells heartbroken people to bond with, and nourish, the part of themselves they've neglected during their last relationship—the inner "stranger" who knows and loves them completely.

      The speaker then urges them to dispose of the mementos of the failed relationship: love letters, photos, unhappy notes, and, metaphorically, the self-image they took out of the experience. The speaker invites them to relish all that their lives still have to offer.

  • “Love After Love” Themes

    • Theme Self-Love After Heartbreak

      Self-Love After Heartbreak

      “Love After Love” is a poem of consolation addressed to anyone who’s suffered a breakup or other romantic disappointment. Assuring such sufferers that things will get better, the speaker depicts the recovery process as one of reconnecting with—and relearning to love—one’s inner self. By paying overdue attention to this neglected “stranger,” the speaker advises, people can rediscover a durable, sustaining love. Moreover, this love won’t stem from vanity or illusion but rather from the mature appreciation of all one's life has to offer. To this speaker, true “love after love” doesn’t involve finding a new partner but finding yourself again.

      The speaker frames the poem as one of reassurance to the heartbroken: the title “Love After Love” promises that the end of one love won’t be the end of all love—that love, in fact, is something continuous and renewable. But in a twist on the romantic cliché of “meeting someone new,” the speaker promises that the “new” person “you will" meet after heartbreak is “your self.” In other words, breakups grant people the chance to reconnect with who they are.

      Again playing on romantic tropes, the speaker imagines this encounter as a kind of date, in which “you” and “yourself” greet each other with “smile[s]” of “welcome” before “Eat[ing]” together. The speaker also imagines it as a kind of communion, using images of “wine” and “bread” (reminiscent of the Christian ritual of Holy Communion) to suggest that getting reacquainted with yourself entails a kind of deeply spiritual, and even holy, connection.

      Through this connection, the speaker says, you will “love again” a part of yourself that has been a “stranger”—that is, the part of yourself that you’d neglected during your relationship. And this, the speaker says, will be like the discovery of a new romantic spark, with a “stranger who has loved you / all your life” but whom you have “ignored / for another.”

      The speaker indicates that learning (or relearning) to love yourself after heartbreak won’t come without cost: it will also mean letting go of the old love. “Give back your heart / to itself” is an instruction not only to love yourself but to withdraw love from where it’s no longer wanted or needed. To that end, the speaker advises getting rid of tokens of the old love: “letters,” “photographs,” “desperate notes.” Cleaning these things up, the speaker implies, will feel internally cleansing, helping you reconnect with yourself and move on.

      The speaker further implies that love of self will be the most authentically nourishing kind, sustaining you even in the absence of a romantic partner. Asserting that you are the one who “knows you by heart” indicates that love of the self has a unique authenticity, intimacy, and depth. Rather than dwelling on pain, then, the poem treats heartbreak as an opportunity for personal growth: a chance to rediscover who you are, and to find joy in the independent self no breakup can take away.

      Where this theme appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-15
  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Love After Love”

    • Lines 1-4

      The time will ...
      ... your own mirror,

      The poem's opening line builds on its title, describing the "love" that one may find "after love"—that is, after heartbreak. Addressing the reader directly, the speaker claims that it is "yourself" you will someday find (again, implicitly, after losing some previous love).

      The tone is confident and optimistic: the speaker reassures the heartbroken that the "time will come" (as opposed to might come). The word "elation" also implies that the process the speaker will go on to detail (of rediscovering yourself after a breakup) can bring more than mere relief or contentment; it can be exciting!

      In a surprising, fantastical image, the speaker then promises that "you" will joyfully encounter "yourself arriving / at your own door, in your own mirror." Notice that "greet[ing]" yourself in the mirror is an everyday possibility, whereas greeting yourself at the door is not (it would require some sort of doppelgänger situation). The image seems to hover between reality and fantasy, like romance itself. Metaphorically, it suggests the experience of "reconnecting with yourself" after a time in which you've felt estranged from your own interests, needs, or identity, as might happen in an unsatisfying relationship. The speaker promises that this experience will bring "elation," a word that again suggests the thrill of romance.

      The enjambment after line 3 ("you will greet yourself arriving") creates a brief pause that adds emphasis to "arriving." For a moment, the word hangs by itself without any elaboration. This effect might bring to mind other, metaphorical ways of "arriving": at a new and better stage of life, for example.

    • Lines 5-7

      and each will ...
      ... was your self.

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    • Lines 8-11

      Give wine. Give ...
      ... you by heart.

    • Lines 12-14

      Take down the ...
      ... from the mirror.

    • Line 15

      Sit. Feast on your life.

  • “Love After Love” Symbols

    • Symbol Mirrors

      Mirrors

      Mirrors are symbolically associated with identity and self-image. They can also be linked with truth or artifice, depending on whether the mirror in question is supposed to be accurate or not.

      The poem draws on both of these associations. The image of the self "arriving" in the "mirror" (lines 3-4) symbolizes reconnecting with one's own identity after the loss of a romantic relationship:

      you will greet yourself arriving
      at your own door, in your own mirror,

      The speaker implies that this identity—this "self"—is authentic, satisfying, and even thrilling (meeting it brings "elation").

      On the other hand, the poem implies that the "image" in the "mirror" in line 14 is dissatisfying and false:

      peel your own image from the mirror.

      Notice the difference between seeing "yourself" in the mirror and a mere "image" of yourself: one sounds real, the other artificial. Thus, this second mirror is associated with superficiality and unreality—things that one needs to "peel" away in order to get back to one's real "life."

      Where this symbol appears in the poem:
      • Lines 3-4: “you will greet yourself arriving / at your own door, in your own mirror,”
      • Line 14: “peel your own image from the mirror.”
    • Symbol Wine and Bread

      Wine and Bread

      The "wine" and "bread" in line 8 carry religious symbolism. In particular, they evoke the Christian ritual of the Eucharist or Holy Communion, in which worshipers consuming bread and wine are said to receive (either literally or symbolically) the body and blood of Christ. Informally, the word "communion" can also describe any deep and/or ritual bonding between people.

      Here, the giving of wine and bread conveys the idea of connecting, or communing, with the self on a deeply spiritual level. It is set in parallel with the giving of the "heart," implying that the self who's been "ignored" has been hungry for love as well as general connection.

      The poet is also using wine and bread as stand-ins for food and drink in general—especially shared food and drink, as in the expression "breaking bread." Thus, these words are linked with "Eat" in line 6 and "Feast" in line 15. The food and drink mentioned throughout the poem suggests that reconnecting with yourself is emotionally nourishing: as satisfying as a hearty meal in the short term, and as sustaining as regular meals over the long term.

      Where this symbol appears in the poem:
      • Line 6: “sit here. Eat.”
      • Line 8: “Give wine. Give bread.”
      • Line 15: “Sit. Feast on your life.”
  • “Love After Love” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Repetition

      The poem uses several kinds of repetition. First, it repeats, or nearly repeats, several line-ending words: "mirror" (lines 4 and 14), "heart" (lines 8 and 11), and "come"/"welcome" (lines 1 and 5). Like a very loose rhyme scheme, these pairings add a degree of structure to the poem, while tying in with the poem's theme of divided/paired selves. The doubling of "mirror" is especially appropriate, since mirrors create doubles.

      The poem also depends heavily on repetition in the form of parallelism. Roughly half of the poem is structured in parallel clauses, as in line 4:

      at your own door, in your own mirror

      Later, the repetition of "Give" is more specifically an example of anaphora:

      Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

      More parallelism follows after this as well. Note the repeated structures in the clauses below:

      to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

      [...] whom you ignored
      [...] who knows you by heart
      [...] the love letters

      [...] the photographs, the desperate notes.

      Lines 6 and 15 are yet more examples of parallelism, as each contains double commands with similar phrasing ("sit here. Eat"; "Sit. Feast").

      The inclusion of all these repetitive structures makes the poem strongly rhythmic. The rhythm, in turn, sounds soothing—as fits the poem's reassuring message—but also authoritative, as the speaker layers instruction on top of instruction. In other words, the poem's repetitions reinforce not only its themes but also its tone, as the speaker guides the reader through the aftermath of heartbreak.

      Where repetition appears in the poem:
      • Line 3: “yourself”
      • Line 4: “your own door,” “your own mirror”
      • Line 6: “sit”
      • Line 7: “your self”
      • Line 8: “Give wine. Give bread. Give,” “heart”
      • Line 9: “to itself, to the stranger,” “who has loved you”
      • Line 10: “whom you ignored”
      • Line 11: “who knows you,” “heart”
      • Line 12: “the love letters”
      • Line 13: “the photographs,” “the desperate notes”
      • Line 14: “mirror”
      • Line 15: “Sit”
    • Enjambment

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      Where enjambment appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-2: “come / when”
      • Lines 3-4: “arriving / at”
      • Lines 8-9: “heart / to”
      • Lines 9-10: “you / all”
      • Lines 10-11: “ignored / for”
    • Metaphor

      Where metaphor appears in the poem:
      • Lines 3-6: “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.”
      • Line 8: “Give wine. Give bread.”
      • Line 14: “peel your own image from the mirror.”
      • Line 15: “Feast on your life.”
    • Asyndeton

      Where asyndeton appears in the poem:
      • Line 8: “Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart”
      • Lines 9-11: “who has loved you / all your life, whom you ignored / for another, who knows you by heart.”
      • Lines 12-14: “Take down the love letters from the bookshelf, / the photographs, the desperate notes, / peel your own image from the mirror.”
    • Alliteration

      Where alliteration appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “when,” “with”
      • Line 6: “say,” “sit”
      • Line 7: “stranger,” “self”
      • Line 8: “bread,” “back”
      • Line 9: “loved”
      • Line 10: “life”
      • Line 12: “love,” “letters”
    • Allusion

      Where allusion appears in the poem:
      • Line 8: “Give wine. Give bread.”
      • Line 15: “Sit. Feast on your life.”
  • “Love After Love” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Elation
    Elation
    • (Location in poem: Lines 2-3: “with elation, / you will greet yourself”)

      "Elation" is joyous excitement.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Love After Love”

    • Form

      "Love After Love" is a free verse poem that doesn't follow a particular form. It consists of 15 lines broken into four stanzas.

      Interestingly, the poem resembles a sonnet in several ways:

      • It has 15 lines (just one more than the sonnet's 14);
      • It deals with love and heartbreak (typical sonnet themes);
      • And it even features (as many sonnets do) an important structural "turn" in lines 8-9, where it shifts from declarative to imperative sentences. In other words, it shifts from stating what will happen ("The time will come") to telling the reader what to do ("Give wine. Give Bread.").

      If he'd wanted to, Walcott—who wrote numerous sonnets during his career—could easily have combined two shorter lines to make this a non-traditional sonnet. So why didn't he? Maybe he wanted to sidestep the associations the sonnet carries, or maybe he wanted to invoke them informally while still setting his poem apart. After all, the poem does elevate a kind of love: love of the self. It doesn't fit neatly in the sonnet tradition, but in making it seem close to that tradition—in a way, expanding on the sonnet form—reflects the way that the poem expands upon ideas about romance.

    • Meter

      "Love After Love" is written in free verse and does not keep a regular meter. The poem feels casual and intimate, without predictable constraints on its form.

      However, Derek Walcott was widely regarded as a master of metrical verse, and the sound of the poem is nevertheless informed by his ear for poetic rhythm. Certain lines fall into an iambic rhythm, for example—a pattern of alternating unstressed and stressed syllables. Take the first three lines:

      The time will come
      when, with elation,
      you will greet yourself arriving

      The following lines are rhythmically looser, however. These choices give the poem a gentle musicality that isn't strict or strained—and feels appropriate to the kindly, reassuring advice it provides.

      Strong iambs reappear in line 8:

      Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

      Here the sudden rhythm places strong emphasis on the line, which marks an important shift in the poem: from declarative to imperative sentences, from comforting predictions ("The time will come") to authoritative instructions ("Give wine."). This shift is almost like the "turn," or "volta," that occurs around lines 8-9 of a traditional sonnet: an iambic form that Walcott may intend his poem to resemble in some respects.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      As a free verse poem, "Love After Love" has no rhyme scheme.

      However, Walcott did often work in rhyme, and his talent for this effect seems to have guided many of his choices here. For example, the poem's repetitions of two line-ending words ("mirror" and "heart"), plus the near-repetition of "come" (line 1) in "welcome" (line 5), could be classified as identical rhyme. (And, of course, the doubling of "mirror" ties in with that word's meaning as well.)

      The pairings of "come"/"welcome," "mirror"/"mirror," and "heart"/"heart" account for nearly half of the poem's line endings. Together, they suggest that Walcott wanted a ghostly hint of rhyme within a generally free-wheeling form. The fact that some lines are "paired" while others are "unpaired" reinforces the themes of the poem—which is about singleness and romantic connection at the same time!

  • “Love After Love” Speaker

    • The poem's speaker adopts a voice of experience, the voice of someone who’s survived romantic disappointment and learned to move on. The speaker addresses the reader directly, with calm sympathy and authority, dispensing consolation and advice. Though the advice is intended to be healing, it also carries shades of judgment, as in the claim that the heartbroken have "ignored" their "lov[ing]" selves in favor of their partners. In elevating the love of the self, the speaker could be seen as taking a skeptical view of traditional romance.

      Since there's no evidence of a persona or ironic gap between poet and speaker, it's reasonable to assume that the speaker reflects the attitudes and experience of Derek Walcott (who, during the year the poem was published, was in his mid-40s—and going through his second divorce). It's possible that the poem represents advice and consolation that the poet is giving himself.

      By speaking with serene reassurance, the speaker models the kind of serenity they're advising heartbroken people to find in themselves. Keeping the speaker general also allows the poem's advice to feel universal—like anyone who's ever been through heartbreak can learn from it.

  • “Love After Love” Setting

    • The poem doesn't specify a time period or geographical setting. It's meant as universal advice about getting over heartbreak, and keeping the setting nonspecific allows its message to resonate far and wide.

      That said, the poem does imply a physical setting: "your own" home, whoever "you" may be. As the poem recommends reconnecting with the self, it imagines this process taking place at said home, surrounded by "your own door," "your own mirror," and mementos of the past relationship ("love letters," "photographs," "desperate notes"). It recommends putting away those mementos, too, and focusing inward.

      These details reinforce the poem's larger message about rediscovering independence after a breakup rather than remaining dependent on someone else. The speaker believes that home and solitude are the best setting in which to find "love after love"—all the emotional nourishment ("Feast[ing]") you'll need for a while.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “Love After Love”

      Literary Context

      Derek Walcott was born and raised in Saint Lucia, where much of his writing is set. Critics have praised his body of work as a landmark of postcolonial literature. One of the most decorated poets of the 20th and early 21st centuries, Walcott received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992, with the prize committee citing his "historical vision, the outcome of a multicultural commitment."

      Of course, "Love After Love" doesn't wrestle with history or politics, and it isn't specifically set in Saint Lucia or any other location. It's a personal, yet widely applicable, lyric about loss and love. Published in the collection Sea Grapes in 1976, when Walcott was 46, it's both a mid-life and a mid-career poem, the work of an author who had a successful literary "life" to "Feast" on. Though it doesn't stick to any traditional poetic form, it has some structural and thematic links with the sonnet tradition, as well as such lyrics of crisis and spiritual healing as George Herbert's "Love (III)" (1633).

      Historical Context

      Unlike much of Walcott's work, "Love After Love" doesn't engage deeply with historical themes or locate itself in a specific cultural context. Its language and images are fairly timeless—with the possible exception of those physical "love letters," which used to be more common in a pre-digital age!

      The poem's use of religious imagery, particularly its allusion to the rite of Communion in line 8, may have some connection to Walcott's cultural background. He was raised in a Methodist family but educated at a Catholic secondary school in Saint Lucia, which remains predominantly Catholic due to its past colonization by majority-Catholic France.

      Communion is a central ritual in the Catholic tradition. Its importance in the cultural atmosphere of Walcott's youth may have inspired him to incorporate it into his poetry—though in a playful and arguably irreverent way. (As a postcolonial writer, Walcott had a complex, original, sometimes skeptical relationship with the literary and religious traditions of the "Old World.")

      Walcott's own relationship history might also factor into "Love After Love." The poem was published in 1976, the same year as his second of three divorces. Since the poem celebrates the joys of keeping yourself company, it may reflect the personality of a writer whose romantic life was sometimes troubled and troubling, but who found great success in the solitude of writing.

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