Modern Love
(As ever, I cannot resist a poem with a cat.)
It is summer, and we are in a house
That is not ours, sitting at a table
Enjoying minutes of a rented silence, *repetition of the
The upstairs people gone. The pigeons lull indefinite article
To sleep the under-tens and invalids,
The tree shakes out its shadows to the grass, *personification
The roses rove through the wilds of my neglect.
Our lives flap, and we have no hope of better *negativity
Happiness than this, not much to show for love
But how we are, and how this evening is,
Unpeopled, silent, and where we are alive
In a domestic love, seemingly alone,
All other lives worn down to trees and sunlight,
Looking forward to a visit from the cat.
– Douglas Dunn
The title leads the reader to anticipate a love poem. Other than the one reference to
“domestic love” the title contains the only other direct reference to love. The diction of this
poem is unembellished and ‘matter-of -fact’. There are no profound declarations of love. What
(As ever, I cannot resist a poem with a cat.)
It is summer, and we are in a house
That is not ours, sitting at a table
Enjoying minutes of a rented silence, *repetition of the
The upstairs people gone. The pigeons lull indefinite article
To sleep the under-tens and invalids,
The tree shakes out its shadows to the grass, *personification
The roses rove through the wilds of my neglect.
Our lives flap, and we have no hope of better *negativity
Happiness than this, not much to show for love
But how we are, and how this evening is,
Unpeopled, silent, and where we are alive
In a domestic love, seemingly alone,
All other lives worn down to trees and sunlight,
Looking forward to a visit from the cat.
– Douglas Dunn
The title leads the reader to anticipate a love poem. Other than the one reference to
“domestic love” the title contains the only other direct reference to love. The diction of this
poem is unembellished and ‘matter-of -fact’. There are no profound declarations of love. What
