These poems delve into the nuanced emotional tapestry of reunion, exploring the poignant topic of getting back together. Addressing the intricacies of reconciliation, forgiveness, and the pursuit of second chances, poets skillfully navigate the landscape of getting back together.
From the fear of separation to the desire for reconciliation after a breakup and shattered hopes of a reunion, the poetry captures the promises of coming back and the transformative power of forgiveness. They reflect on the consuming desire, passion, and longing inherent in the pursuit of reconnection, highlighting the intense yearning for redemption.
These poems transmit the anticipation, vulnerability, and hope accompanying reconnecting with a lost love or connection through evocative language, imagery, and metaphors. They reflect a unique human condition, bearing raw and instinctive emotions with broad resonance or universal relatability.
‘Sonnet 110’ or ‘Alas, ’tis true I have gone here and there’ is about the speaker’s realization that he only wants the Fair Youth.
The speaker seeks his lover's forgiveness and reconciliation, expressing his regret and love in the poem. Acknowledging past mistakes and infidelity, he reveals a genuine longing for reunion. The speaker's plea for a second chance or welcome back in lines, 'Then give me welcome, next my heaven the best/ Even to thy pure and most most loving breast' presents an earnest desire to get back together. The metaphor of being confined to a divine love underscores the speaker's realization of the value of their love, which he had almost lost forever.
Alas! 'tis true, I have gone here and there,
And made my self a motley to the view,
Gored mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most dear,
‘Tonight I Can Write’ by Pablo Neruda explores love’s transient nature and enduring impact, capturing poignant emotions felt after a breakup.
The poem expresses the speaker's underlying desire to get back together with his ex-lover as he struggles with instinctive and uncontrollable longing for her, resulting in immense sadness. Despite the acknowledgment of the finality of the relationship, he admits his attempts to regain his lost love - 'My sight tries to find her as though to bring her closer.' The speaker's voice, looking for the wind, symbolizes his attempt to get in touch with her to some extent. The desire to get back together is intertwined with the speaker's troubled psyche as he struggles to come to terms with reality.
Tonight I can write the saddest lines.
Write, for example, 'The night is starry and the stars are blue and shiver in the distance.'
William Butler Yeats’ poem ‘When You Are Old’ is directly addressed to his lover, most probably Maud Gonne who was an Irish revolutionary.
The poem's speaker urges the addressee to think about when she is old and no longer physically beautiful. He suggests that at that time, she might think of all her lovers, including the one who 'loved the pilgrim soul' in her regardless of physical beauty. The speaker implicitly suggests she will regret not having such true and spiritual love when she is old if she doesn't reunite with him. The poem is considered autobiographical, addressing Yeats's love interest, Maud Gonne, who, in reality, didn't return his love and never got back with him.
‘A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning’ by John Donne is a metaphysical poem exploring the nature of enduring love.
The prospect of physical reunion is implicitly embedded in the poem as the speaker temporarily departs, assuring his beloved with their enduring spiritual love. The compass metaphor conveys a balance between physical and spiritual intimacy, suggesting that the lovers will get back together while being sustained by their spiritual connection. The speaker reassures his beloved while suggesting a happy reunion; the last lines clearly convey that they will get back together again - 'Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.'
In ‘A Red, Red Rose,’ Robert Burns lyrically celebrates enduring love, promising everlasting commitment amidst a temporary farewell.
In 'A Red, Red Rose,' the idea of getting back together is embedded in the speaker's promise to return to the beloved as he bids her farewell. Regardless of the miles that may separate them, the speaker's assurance to 'come again' suggests a hopeful reunion in lines - 'And I will come again, my luve,/ Though it were ten thousand mile.' The speaker's promise to return sustains his earlier commitment to relentless love while suggesting a happy reunion as he departs temporarily.
‘Wild nights – Wild nights!’ by Emily Dickinson is a multi-faceted poem. It explores an ambiguous relationship that could be religious or sexual.
The undercurrent of getting back together runs throughout the poem as the premise of the speaker's journey toward her beloved is her memories or previous knowledge of wild nights spent pleasurably with the beloved as she admits - 'Were I with thee/ Wild nights should be/ Our luxury!' Thus, the speaker transcends the sea, searching for the beloved, seeking reunion and the contentment of passionate love as she ecstatically exclaims - 'Ah - the Sea!' imagining the moment of getting back together.
‘Love Sonnet XI’ by Pablo Neruda presents passionate longing and consuming desire through sensual imagery and intense metaphors.
The poem doesn't explicitly mention the separation of the speaker and his beloved; however, the speaker is consumed by an overwhelming desire to be with her, suggesting temporary separation or some distance. His longing to get back together with her is evident as he starves not only for her physical presence but also for intangible aspects, including laughter and voice. The poem captures his overflowing yearning for the reunion as he places his desire for her above necessities like bread while expressing what he wants to do with her body.
I crave your mouth, your voice, your hair.
Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.
Bread does not nourish me, dawn disrupts me, all day
‘Don’t Go Far Off’ by Pablo Neruda is an impassioned plea for the beloved’s constant presence, showing fear of separation.
The topic of getting back together runs like an undercurrent in the poem as the speaker anticipates what will happen if he and his beloved are to be separated. It shows that the panic-stricken speaker will always keep looking for her, wondering when they will get back together: 'I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking, Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?' While the poem primarily expresses the fear of separation, it subtly hints at the anticipation or efforts of reuniting if the unfortunate distance ever comes.
Don't go far off, not even for a day, because --
because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long
and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station
when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep.
‘Ae Fond Kiss’ by Robert Burns is a Scottish poem describing the emotional parting of two lovers trapped in inevitable circumstances.
The speaker's poignant sorrow indicates an underlying wish for a reunion. It seems as if the speaker is trying to realize the truth that the separation is not temporary but permanent with the repeated refrain, 'Ae fareweel, alas, forever!' as he tries to rekindle the love with a kiss. The heartache is heightened by this realization that he will long for a reunion forever, as any prospect of getting back together with the beloved is definitively unattainable.
‘Amoretti Sonnet 86’ by Edmund Spenser explores the toll of leaving one’s beloved and portrays the long days and nights which follow.
The poem primarily focuses on the emotional turmoil and yearning experienced in the absence of the beloved rather than directly addressing the theme of getting back together. However, certain elements can be interpreted as indirect expressions of the desire for reunion. The speaker's repeated wishes for the end of day or night can be seen as an implicit longing for the return of the loved one, hoping for the moment when they can be together again. The phrase 'I wish that day would shortly reascend' suggests a yearning for a new beginning or a reunion.
‘New Year’ by Duffy melds year-end nostalgia with the ache for a lost love, weaving hope into the fabric of longing.
Hinting at their relationships' recent conclusion, the speaker appears optimistic and hopeful of reconciliation with their love in the New Year. The main hint at a desire to reunite with their lover comes from the prayers of the 'heavens'. Despite whatever occurred in their relationship previously, the speaker 'at last' acknowledges that the stars have destined the two to be together.
Out of the space around me, standing here, I shape
your absent body against mine. You touch me as the giving air.
‘The Skunk’ by Heaney uses a skunk as a metaphor for the poet’s wife, exploring themes of longing, memory, and reconnection.
Although the poem does not clearly say the couple is reuniting, there is a gentle movement toward closeness again. Writing letters after so many years, remembering the feel of her near him, and ending with the image of her return all point to the idea that something is being repaired. The poem gives small signs that the distance between them may not last. It quietly suggests that old feelings can still bring people together again.
In ‘A Brief Love Letter,’ explore how Nizar Qabbani passionately celebrates love, longing, and admiration for the lover.
The poem isn’t really about getting back together. It’s more about deeply admiring and loving someone. The speaker talks about how important the beloved is to their life, but there’s no mention of a breakup or reunion.
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