The time will come when, with elation, you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror, and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat. You will love again the stranger who was your self. Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored for another, who knows you by heart. Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes, peel your own image from the mirror. Sit. Feast on your life.
Derek Walcott
TEST YOURSELF Answer either Question 1 or Question 2.
1. (a) Explain in your own words why you think Walcott gave this poem the title ‘Love After Love’.
(b) Write a brief personal response to the last four lines of the poem. Support your answer with reference to the poem.
OR
2. Discuss the poet’s use of language in ‘Love After Love’. Your answer should make close reference to the text.
