True Love

“True Love” first appears as a simple poem with a simple story. However, a careful reading exposes its complex social dynamics. It is told by the adult speaker remembering an episode from his childhood and adolescence. As such, it reflects a childlike innocence through the lens of adult experience, producing a collection of snapshot memories. The memories are often described in terms that echo adult observations, which an overhearing child knows are significant but does not understand why. Similarly, readers must take these snapshots and consider them in the contextual layers of the poem to understand what it offers.

The complexity of the poem starts with the title, “True Love.” The concept of “true love” is used in more than one sense. Today, many people use it to mean an enduring love that leads the lovers to forsake all others to commit their lives to each other in marriage. The phrase might also refer to the concept of courtly love practiced in the Middle Ages, in which a man would devote himself to a woman regardless of whether she would ever be his mate. In this arrangement, love was idealized as a spiritual rather than physical union. The title “True Love” might be ironic, undermining either or both of these sensibilities.