In a world where emotions are cheap and the truth even cheaper, how can we write authentic odes to our beloved? Sharon Olds, Maged Zaher and Lil Nas X show one poet the way
What do poets talk about when they talk about love? The first poem I ever wrote was a love poem. I was 14. I don’t remember any of the lines but I do remember it expressed a sickly, naive, messy soup of feelings. It was obsessional, devotional, incantatory – all those things that form a part of romantic love. Its emotions were outsize, its imagery floral and baroque. Very probably, the colour of the addressee’s hair was compared to something in nature, and their complexion to a rose. The addressee was someone specific, with whom I was convinced I was in love. This would be embarrassing to admit – or at least more embarrassing – if it weren’t so commonplace. But penning love poems is one of the great human pastimes. They are central in the so-called canons of global literature. They’ve been around for as long as love itself, for as long as there has been language to describe love. Haven’t you written one, at some point?
My first love poem was addressed to someone, a “you”. More importantly, it was told through an “I”. It expressed feelings or emotions from a personal point of view – it was a lyric poem. These have their origins in antiquity and continue unabated today. Sappho circa 600BC: “You came and I was crazy for you / and you cooled my mind that burned with longing.” Lil Nas X in 2021: “Call me by your name / Tell me you love me in private / Call me by your name / I do not care if you’re lying.”
