Love after Love is one of the most renowned poems by Derek Walcott, a renowned Saint Lucian poet, playwright, and educator, celebrated for his contributions to literature and the arts. Walcott’s works often reflect themes of identity and colonialism. His poem, Love after Love, captures the essence of self-acceptance and the journey toward personal love after loss. The short poem perfectly reminds us that the most profound love one can have is the love for oneself.
The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you
all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,
the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.