AFTER LOVE

 

                                AFTER LOVE

‘AFTER LOVE’ is a short poem by the British poet and critic Arthur Symons (1865-1945). He was a symbolist and a believer in extravagant passion. In ‘After Love’ he talks about the sweet days of his love and the painful days of its termination. He tells his lady love that during the period of love their meetings were sweet, now when love is over, he cannot agree to meet her as a friend.  Becoming a friend from a lover is unacceptable stooping. “It is too hard, too hard to meet/If we must love no more.” The end of love should mean the end of all sorts of future meetings.  

            What follows is the complete poem:-

OH, TO PART now, and, parting now,

Never to meet again;

To have done forever, I and thou,

With joy, and so with pain.

 

It is too hard to meet

If we must love no more;

Those other meetings, were too sweet

That went before.

 

 And I would have, now love is over,

An end to all, an end;

I cannot, having been your lover,

Stoop to become your friend !

                                              ********

G.R.Kanwal

5^th October 2023