Love Poem
by John Frederick Nims

My clumbsiest dear, whose hands shipwreck vases,
At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring,
Whose palms are bulls in china, burrs in linen,
And have no cunning with any soft thing

Except all ill at ease fidgeting people:
The refugee uncertain at the door
You make at home; deftly you steady
The drunk clambering on his undulant floor.

Unpredictable dear, the taxi drivers' terror,
Shrinking from far headlights pale as a dime
Yet leaping before red apoplectic streetcars-
Misfit in any space. And never on time.

A wrench in clocks and the solar system. Only
With words and people and love you move at ease.
In traffic of wit expertly manoeuver
And keep us, all devotion, at your knees.

Forgeting your coffee spreading on our flannel,
Your lipstick grinning on our coat,
So gayly in love's unbreakable heaven
Our soals on glory of split bourbon float.

Be with me darling early and late. Smash glasses-
I will study wry music for your sake.
For should yor hands drop white and empty
All the toys of the world would break.

 

Theme: The theme of Nims's poem is the beauty of sticking to the one you love despite all of their imperfect qualities

From the metaphors in the poem, Nims creates the image of a very clumsy person with all things, yet with people she has beauty and grace and charm. Although she does have faults, her beautiful nature keep those who know her "all devotion, at your knees." When it says "So gayly in love's unbreakable heaven/Our souls on glory of spilt bourbon float," gives all her qualities, be they clumsy, a heavenly or surreal image. Since it says that it is an unbreakable heaven, it suggests that their heaven is not something that even she can break in her clutziness. Their souls float on spilt bourbon, which shows that they are in a world of happiness, yet there is still the presence of her faults. "Be with me darling early and late," can also be a metaphor for their life, wanting her to be with him in youth and living together and growing old together, early and late in their lives. Her hands, which "shipwreck vases,/At whose quick touch all glasses chip and ring," are also graceful with people, and "should your hands drop white and empty/All the toys of the world would break," meaning that those same clumsy hands, should they fall in death, would leave all those whom she touched in her life. The toys breaking are the good and favorite things they love, gone, unreplacable.

 

For more information on this author and his works, here are links to some other webpages.

More about Nims

Nims

Interpretation of "Love Poem"

Background

 

Web page the creation of Katie Barton, Melissa Caddell, and Sara McArthur. Last updated 2/28/00.