Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
Lines 10-11
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
- Did you notice the white space between lines 9 and 10? That’s more than just a stanza break. Line 9 leaves us hanging, hovering in mid-air for a moment longer than usual. Thanks to this enjambment, we’re able to marvel at the thought that someone out there (or in there?) has loved us for our entire life.
- That pause gives us (well, you) time to realize something important: at some point in the past, you apparently dropped the ball in terms of self-love. Notice how the word “ignored” is tucked inconspicuously into a relative clause. (Walcott’s syntax is so effortlessly sophisticated that he plays that tricky “whom” card without batting an eye.) Suggesting betrayal, the word “ignored” stands out like a sore thumb (or a wounded heart?) amidst all this gentle murmuring about love.
- And just why did you stop paying proper attention to your poor little past self? Apparently your attention wandered to someone else, identified only as “another.” It sounds like a love triangle. How shocking! Are restless housewives involved?
- Before we move on, what’s the deal with the second part of line 11 (after the… wait for it… caesura)? Who is it that “knows you by heart”? Is it your former self, or is it this other person who has just entered the picture? It would make sense that someone who has loved you all your life would know you by heart, so the “who” here may refer to your former self. Still, there’s no way to know for sure yet, so let’s just move along to the next line…
Line 12
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
- We (you) get another command from the speaker, here. It’s redecorating time. Specifically, you need to take those old love notes down from where you were keeping them. For what purpose, though? Read them? Box them up? Put them in the fireplace and burn them while crying silently into your handkerchief?
- More importantly, to whom were these love letters written? We don’t have the details just yet, We’ll have to head down to the next stanza. Just watch out for that enjambment on the way.