Summary

“Love After Love” follows a speaker who is learning to re-love themselves after a period of disillusionment. They tell the reader that one day they will learn to greet themselves with love, looking in the mirror and seeing a welcoming face. The reflection invites the reader to sit and dine with them, getting reacquainted. The reader has ignored this other self in favour of someone else, but now it is time to move on from that less honest love in order to be full and at peace with oneself.

Analysis

“Love After Love” is a poem that both celebrates and inverts the trope of “second-chance romance;” in this instance, rather than embracing a chance at new love with another, the speaker urges the reader to fall in love with themself. The first stanza begins with short lines and builds into longer lines, giving a...