Love Song for Alex, 1979

“Love Song for Alex, 1979” is a lyric sonnet that Margaret Walker wrote for her husband. The poem is frequently labeled a sonnet because of its 14 lines, though it doesn’t follow the strict rhyme scheme of a traditional sonnet. In the style of lyric poetry, the poem expresses Walker’s warm feelings for her husband. Though it doesn’t reveal a narrative, we can glean some details about the couple’s relationship from the poem.

Poet Biography

Margaret Walker was born in 1915 in Birmingham, Alabama. Her parents emphasized the humanities throughout her childhood and lived in New Orleans until she left for Chicago. There, in 1935, she earned a bachelor of arts from Northwestern University at age 19. Walker found herself in the Great Depression, and she began working with the Works Progress Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration, which had a program to employ writers. The program, the Federal Writers’ Project, produced local guides and histories, children’s stories, and ethnographies.

Around this same time, Walker joined the South Side Writer’s Group, a club consisting of around 20 African American poets and writers in Chicago.