Old Love

As the title suggests, “Old Love” is a love poem. Unlike many love poems, however, it does not focus on the beginning or the peak of a love affair, neither the early thrill of infatuation nor the blissful days of romantic happiness. It also does not belong to the subcategory of love poems that express the pain of a love affair cut short by tragically early death, infidelity, or loss of interest. In this case, the love is “Sixty years” (Line 20) old, and the aunt passed away at the age of “eighty-seven” (Line 11). Therefore, the man and the woman fell in love when she was in her twenties, and he was most likely about the same age. Within these sixty years, there must have been ups and downs, high and lows, but the poem does not simply celebrate the highs or mourn the lows. In only 22 lines, it captures the fullness of a lasting relationship, a life partnership. To the uncle, she is still “my girl” (Lines 4 and 5), which evokes the passion of their youth, but he also remembers the many New Year’s Eves they spent together through the years. No doubt, most of the time during these yearly festivities, they “sang / and laughed and hugged” (Lines 16-17) like the others, though at midnight she would look at him “with tears in her eyes” (Line 19), knowing that this happiness cannot last forever.