# XVI explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Mina Loy.

## What happens

A lyrical, dreamlike reflection on alternate possibilities of love and existence, evoking a sense of lost intimacy and the innocence of imagined shared lives.

## Themes in this chapter

### Alienation and Belonging

The chapter contrasts a vision of togetherness with the reality of separation, highlighting a longing for belonging that remains unfulfilled.

### Childhood and Innocence

Imagery of apple stealing and hide and seek evokes a childlike innocence and simplicity in the imagined shared life.

## Key lines

> We might have lived together In the lights of the Arno Or gone apple stealing under the sea Or played Hide and seek in love and cob-webs And a lullaby on a tin-pan And talked till there were no more tongues To talk with And never have known any better

We could have shared a life by the Arno, or stolen apples beneath the sea, or played hide and seek in love and cobwebs, and sung lullabies on a tin pan, and talked until we had no words left, never realizing there was anything better.

_The passage imagines a series of idyllic, impossible scenarios of togetherness, underscoring a wistful sense of what might have been._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters/xvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_17_se/chapters