To be in love

1
To be in love

• Gwendolyn Brooks
• Brooks was one of the earliest female African
  American writers to be published. A university
  teacher, she wrote a number of novels and
  collections of poetry. She won the Pulitzer Prize
  in 1949 for Annie Allen

2
To be in love

• To be in love
• Is to touch things with a lighter hand
• In yourself you stretch, you are well.
• You look at things
• Through his eyes

3
A Cardinal is red A sky is blue Suddenly
you know he knows too He is not there but You
know you are tasting together The winter, or
light spring weather His hand to take your hand
is overmuch Too much to bear
4
His hand to take your hand is overmuch Too
much to bear You cannot look in his eyes Because
your pulse must not say What must not be
said When he Shuts a door- Is not there Your
arms are water.
5
And you are free With a ghastly freedom You
are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt You
remember and covet his mouth To touch, to whisper
on Oh when to declare Is certain Death!
6
Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize To see
fall down, The Column of Gold, Into the commonest
ash
7
To be in love Is to touch things with a lighter
hand
When you are in love you touch things with a
lighter hand. To touch things with a lighter
hand could mean that you are more relaxed, less
serious, more gentle.
8
In yourself you stretch, you are well.
When you are in love you stretch. This is a
metaphor. You dont stretch physically but
figuratively. You dont just focus on your own
desires. You accommodate somebody elses feelings
and ideas. You become less selfish. You grow
because you learn more about someone else. You
are well. You experience a general feeling of
happiness.
9
You look at things Through his eyes.
The way you look at things in life changes. You
begin to see things through the eyes of the one
you love. Through his eyes is a figurative
expression. You dont literally see things
through the eyes of the one you love, you look at
things and then think what he would think about
the thing that you see. He also gives you his
perception.
10
A Cardinal is red
The poet gives you examples of what you can see.
You can see a Cardinal. A Cardinal is a bird in
North America, it is named a cardinal because its
colour is the same as the robe of a Cardinal in
the Roman Catholic church red. You know this
bird is red but because you are in love the
colours seem new to you.
11
A sky is blue
The poet now also says A sky is blue. The poet
uses a instead of the. With the a, the poet
seems to say that not all skies are blue. Through
the eyes of one who is in love, the sky may
appear more blue. Note that one always refer to
The sky.
12
Suddenly you know he knows too.
The relationship is developing. The poet says
that you will suddenly know that he knows that
you are in love with him. A couple will know
suddenly that they both like each other.
13
He is not there but You know you are tasting
together The winter, or light spring weather
You know that even though the one you love is not
with you, you experience the same things in the
same way. You are tasting together The water you
taste will taste like the water he tastes.
Figuratively you are experiencing things
together. You and he will experience winter and
spring the same way. You will experience the same
seasons although you are not together. This also
means you will always think of him.
14
His hand to take your hand is overmuch Too much
to bear.
When he touches your hand it is too much because
you are in love. The poet uses the word overmuch.
She says touching her loved ones hand is too
much. The emotional feelings created by the touch
are too much to cope with.
15
You cannot look in his eyes Because your pulse
must not say What must not be said
The physical excitement is too much. When he
touches your hand you cannot look in his eyes.
Touching his hand makes your pulse race. You do
not want to look in his eyes because your eyes
may not say what MUST not be said. You can not
say I love you, too early in a relationship. You
can not allow your physical response to his touch
to betray your feelings to him.
I love you
16
When he Shuts a door Is not there Your arms
are water.
Shuts a door refers to the partner leaving He
is not in the presence of the other person. If
you are not in the presence of the other person
your arms are water Metaphor Your arms become
like water. Useless, unable to do anything, weak.
17
And you are free With a ghastly freedom
You may experience freedom because your partner
left but it is a ghastly freedom. Ghastly
horrifying, shocking, upsetting. This freedom
comes to you with a shock. You dont want to be
free like this. This is an example of a
paradox contrast between ghastly and freedom.
18
You are the beautiful half Of a golden hurt
You are stil beautiful but you are only a half.
When you were with your loved one you were two
beautiful people that formed a whole, now you are
only half. Golden hurt This is a metaphor. Love
is compared with gold. Gold is one of the purest
metals found. The hurt is called golden because
you have been hurt in love relationship. Being in
love is as precious as gold.
19
You remember and covet his mouth, To touch, to
whisper on it
Being apart, you remember your physical
closeness. You miss it. You covet his
mouth. Covet want to have something very
much. It is also the word used for desire in the
Ten Commandments which could mean that you desire
your loved one so much it edges on sin. You want
to touch his lips and whisper things to him.
20
Oh when to declare Is certain Death!
The poet says to declare your love is certain
death. Not literally the death of a person but
figuratively the death or end of the relationship.
I love you
21
Oh when to apprize Is to mesmerize
To apprize means to inform. You must inform the
person you love at exactly the right moment or
you could spoil the relationship. Mesmerize to
fascinate someone or absorb all of his
attention. When you inform a person that you
love him you will get all the attention of that
person. That person will be mesmerized by what
you have said.
22
To see fall down, The Column of Gold, Into the
commonest ash.
When you declare that love, the Column of Gold is
destroyed. The Column of Gold refers to the
feeling of being in love. The moment you declare
your love the relationship becomes something
common. The gold is turned into ash, common
ash. It becomes nothing.