Poetry · Chapter
These Things That Poets Said explained
The speaker reflects on the nature of love and poetry, questioning whether the love described by poets is true or if their own experience of love was the genuine one.
What happens
The speaker reflects on the nature of love and poetry, questioning whether the love described by poets is true or if their own experience of love was the genuine one. They argue that the proof of having loved lies in the difference they feel now that they no longer love.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Loss
The poem directly questions the truth of love as described by poets and contrasts it with the speaker's own experience of loving and the subsequent loss of that love.
Language and Poetry
The speaker compares their own love to the love described in poetry, questioning the authenticity of poetic expressions of love.
Characters to notice
- Unknown
The speaker who reflects on love and poetry, and who feels changed by the experience of loving.
Key passages
“These things that poets said / Of love seemed true to me / When I loved and I fed / On love and poetry equally.”
When I was in love, I believed the poets' descriptions of love were accurate, and I nourished myself with both love and poetry.
The speaker recalls a time when love and poetry felt harmonious and true.
“But now I wish I knew / If theirs were love indeed, / Or if mine were the true / And theirs some other lovely weed.”
Now I am uncertain whether the poets' love was real or if my own love was the genuine one, while theirs was a different, perhaps deceptive, kind.
The speaker expresses doubt about the authenticity of poetic love versus personal experience.
“Only, that once I loved / By this one argument / Is very plainly proved: / I, loving not, am different.”
The only clear proof that I once loved is that now, without love, I am a changed person.
The speaker concludes that the transformation caused by love is the evidence of its reality.