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Ted Hughes - Lovesong

He loved her and she loved him
His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to
He had no other appetite
She bit him she gnawed him she sucked
She wanted him complete inside her
Safe and Sure forever and ever
Their little cries fluttered  into the curtains

Her eyes wanted nothing to get away
Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows
He gripped her hard so that life
Should not drag her from that moment
He wanted all future to cease
He wanted to topple with his arms round her
Or everlasting or whatever there was
Her embrace was an immense press
To print him into her bones
His smiles were the garrets of a fairy place
Where the real world would never come
Her smiles were spider bites
So he would lie still till she felt hungry
His word were occupying armies
Her laughs were an assasin's attempts
His looks were bullets daggers of revenge
Her glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets
His whispers were whips and jackboots
Her kisses were lawyers steadily writing
His caresses were the last hooks of a castaway 
Her love-tricks were the grinding of locks
And their deep cries crawled over the floors
Like an animal dragging a great trap
His promises were the surgeon's gag
Her promises took the top off his skull
She would get a brooch made of it
His vows  pulled out all her sinews 
He showed her how to make a love-knot
At the back of her secret drawer
Their screams stuck in the wall
Their heads fell apart into sleep like the two halves
Of a lopped melon, but love is hard to stop

In their entwined  sleep they exchanged arms and legs
In their dreams their brains took each other hostage

In the morning they wore each other's face

Added: on July 20th, 2006 at 8:50 PM | Viewed: 2844 times | Comments (1)


Lovesong - Comments and Information

Poet: Ted Hughes
Poem: Lovesong

Comment 1 of 1, added on July 20th, 2006 at 8:50 PM.

This poem leaves nothing to the imagination. Co-dependent love is not healthy. This poem made me think of the movie, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf--and the true to life strife between Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton.
The last line is a biting remark, but it is also a bit weak (in my opinion). Yes, there is an attempt to make the other person a clone, but it is because they do not succeed to the subjection that the "War of the Roses" continues. They never really wear each others faces because they just don't succeed in forcing their will on each other.

dallas from United States

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