Frank O'Hara wrote "Having a Coke with You" in 1960 and later collected it in his 1965 volume Love Poems (Tentative Title). One of O'Hara's most famous love poems, it's addressed to an unnamed "you" (based on the dancer Vincent Warren) at the start of an exciting relationship. The speaker declares that doing simple things with his lover—such as sharing a Coke while wandering New York City—"is even more fun" than traveling to exotic locales and more rewarding than the most beautiful works of art. Though the speaker is an art connoisseur, he celebrates the joyful immediacy of life over the comparative "still[ness]" and "solemn[ity]" of art, as well as the way love can transform the everyday into the extraordinary.

• Read the full text of “Having a Coke with You”

• “Having a Coke with You” Summary

• “Having a Coke with You” Themes

  • 

    Love and Shared Experience

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-25
  • 

    Real Life vs. Art

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Line 3
    • Lines 6-25

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Having a Coke with You”

  • Lines 1-2

    is even more ...
    ... Gracia in Barcelona

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 3-6

    partly because in ...
    ... people and statuary

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 7-10

    it is hard ...
    ... through its spectacles

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-16

    and the portrait ...
    ... the first time

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 17-19

    and the fact ...
    ... to wow me

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 20-23

    and what good ...
    ... as the horse

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 24-25

          ...
    ... you about it

    

    

    

    

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• “Having a Coke with You” Symbols

  • 

    Coke

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-2: “is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne / or being sick to my stomach on the Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona”

• “Having a Coke with You” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian”
    • Lines 9-10: “we are drifting back and forth / between each other like a tree breathing through its spectacles”
    • Lines 17-19: “and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism / just as at home I never think of the / Nude Descending a Staircase / or / at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me”

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “Sebastian”
    • Line 3: “partly because,” “Sebastian”
    • Line 4: “partly because of,” “love for,” “love for”
    • Line 5: “partly because of”
    • Line 6: “partly because of,” “statuary”
    • Line 8: “statuary”
    • Line 10: “tree”
    • Line 11: “portrait”
    • Line 14: “portraits”
    • Line 17: “and”
    • Line 20: “and”
    • Line 21: “tree”
    • Line 25: “which is,” “which is”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 6-25

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 7-8: “still / as”
    • Lines 8-9: “it / in”
    • Lines 9-10: “forth / between”
    • Lines 13-14: “look / at”
    • Lines 14-15: “world / except”
    • Lines 15-16: “Frick / which”
    • Lines 18-19: “or / at”
    • Lines 20-21: “them / when”
    • Lines 22-23: “carefully / as”
    • Lines 24-25: “experience / which”

  • Allusion

    

    

    

    

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    Where allusion appears in the poem:

    • Line 3: “partly because in your orange shirt you look like a better happier St. Sebastian”
    • Lines 14-15: “I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world / except possibly for the  / Polish Rider /  occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick”
    • Lines 17-23: “and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism / just as at home I never think of the / Nude Descending a Staircase / or / at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me / and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them / when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank / or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully / as the horse”

• “Having a Coke with You” 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.

  • Irún
  • San Sebastian
  • Hendaye
  • Biarritz
  • Bayonne
  • Travesera de Gracia in Barcelona
  • St. Sebastian
  • Fluorescent
  • Statuary
  • Definitive
  • Spectacles
  • The Polish Rider
  • The Frick
  • Futurism
  • Nude Descending a Staircase
  • Rehearsal
  • Leonardo
  • Michelangelo
  • Impressionists
  • Marino Marini
  • Marino Marini
  • (Location in poem: Line 1: “is even more fun than going to San Sebastian, Irún, Hendaye, Biarritz, Bayonne”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Having a Coke with You”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Having a Coke with You” Speaker

• “Having a Coke with You” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Having a Coke with You”

• More “Having a Coke with You” Resources

  • External Resources

    • The Poet's Life — Read a brief biography of O'Hara at Poets.org.

    • More on O'Hara's Life and Work — A biography of O'Hara at the Poetry Foundation.

    • The New York School — A brief introduction to the literary movement with which O'Hara was associated.

    • O'Hara and Vincent Warren — More on the relationship between O'Hara and dancer Vincent Warren, the inspiration for "Having a Coke with You."

    • The Poem Aloud — Watch Frank O'Hara read "Having a Coke with You."

  • LitCharts on Other Poems by Frank O'Hara

    • The Day Lady Died

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