How do these love poems, “Bleecker Street, Summer” and “The Fist,” compare with other love poems you’ve read?
The love poems “Bleecker Street, Summer” and “The Fist” are very different than other love poems I’ve read. Although both are love poems, they seem to suffer pain in love. When one thinks of love, thoughts of light, happiness, joy and relief come to mind. For these poems, it seems as though love is quite stifling and almost only physical. He compares his idea of love to nature specifically the ocean or beach in “Bleecker Street, Summer” but on the other hand, love is suffocating in “The Fist”. Although love is comparable to pain to him, it is also his means of living; without it he wouldn’t be alive. Walcott seems to have a fascination with the pain of love and finds it intoxicating this way; quite honestly, that idea is refreshing because love truly is not always a happy time. Love comes with hardship and can also be suffocating.