• First Stanza

• Formed out of a long sentence that tails off with a comma into
the second stanza, this first is an accumulation of reassuring
statement, aimed personally at the reader and more
specifically at those who know through their own experiences.

• The lines grow in length, repetition helping to reinforce the

idea that you will be ok in the long run, you'll become aware
of the need for self-love and a positive outlook. Each time you
get home and stand before your door, each time you see
yourself in the mirror this feeling will grow, just like the
stanza...
• Second Stanza

• You may even start to talk to yourself again, inside. The message is to sit. The
purpose is to eat. This could come as a bit of a surprise, the imperative Eat. Why
eat? With yourself?

• Well, if you're eating you have an appetite and that means more positive energy,
it means an act of communion (religious as well as secular) can take place and
that in itself is a vital start, a practical step towards loving oneself.

• Note the mention of the stranger in line seven, underlining the idea of a split in
the psyche - and the reassuring tone of the speaker who insists that this stranger
will be loved again. The stranger who was your self but who has been neglected.

• The wine and bread are taken from the Christian communion (they symbolise the
blood and body of Christ) but are here meant to convey the humanity involved in
this process rather than any divinity. The syntax is unusual, broken up by full
stops, end stops as the imperative comes to the fore.

• All through this stanza is an emphasis on the stranger, the metaphorical stranger,
that part of every individual who unconditionally loves but who, through time has
lost heart.
• Third Stanza/Fourth Stanza

• Enjambment carries the reader from second to third and continues to

focus on the stranger, that side of the psyche who during the
relationship suffered, but still is the one who knows best.

• And in line twelve the first mention of a practical step towards finally
ending the heartache and estrangement. Remove love letters. Remove
photos. Remove notes. Presumably they have to be destroyed or kept
out of sight before a healing can be reached.

• That use of the word peel in the final stanza gives an added
significance - not take down your own image but peel, slowly and
surely, unseal yourself before you can at last sit and finish off the wine
and bread in a suitable manner. Don't eat the food, feast on it. You
deserve it.
• Love After Love is a short, free verse poem of 4 stanzas,
making a total of 15 varied length lines. The rather loose
structure overall reflects the breaking down of former
barriers, a theme within the poem, which focuses on new
found freedom to love oneself following a relationship
breakup.
• Tone

• The tone is gentle, conciliatory and instructive. The speaker is

reassuring the reader throughout that all will be well in the
end, it's a matter of time and willingness to accept. But some
actions will have to be taken which is why the imperatives are
used in some lines.
• Imagery

• The images are those of an individual entering, opening a door of a

house and facing their own image in a mirror. This is a positive
visual, there are smiles and even some joy.

• There is an instruction - to eat - at a table, in the kitchen? This is the

scene the reader is encouraged to build: a quietly reflective person
who is now beginning to show signs of a new life, expressing positive
vibes through smiles and a renewed appetite for life.

• Once the paraphernalia surrounding the lost love, all the letters and
what have you, are finally removed, then the self-acceptance can be
truly experienced.

• The mirrors are an obvious pointer towards reflection and

recognition.