Explicating Love Song for Alex by Margaret Walker

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Recommended: American dream in literature

Love Song for Alex by Margaret Walker is a tribute to the poet’s husband, embodying the beauty of their relationship. The poem begins with a descriptive praise of Walker’s husband and grows into sketch of their relationship that finishes with praise. Consequently, Walker brings to life both the passion and happiness of her and her husband’s love, while also identifying the comfort of time within their relationship. By using metaphor, changing pronoun tense, and creating imagery; Margaret Walker not only defines her husband’s attributes but demonstrates their intimate relationship in Love Song for Alex.

Margaret Walker is able to immediately draw the reader into the context of her poem, beginning it with a descriptive metaphor of her husband, while using singular, possessive pronouns which exemplify her love. By beginning “My monkey-wrench man is my sweet patootie,” Walker evokes not only her personal ties to her husband through the pronoun my, but she also uses the metaphor to demonstrate her husband is hard-working and lovable, which are both necessary components to the “American dream relationship” where both love and hard work are necessary to create a lasting relationship (1). Moreover, Walker reveals a relationship where feelings are reciprocated: “the lover of my life, my youth and age/ My heart belongs to him and to him only” (2-3). Walker demonstrates the permanence of her relationship as she asserts that she has given her heart to her husband, while acknowledging her husband has loved her throughout her life. Therefore, the possessive pronouns take the two individuals away from individuality and bring them together. Walker provides support for this interwoven relationship through her description of their childr...

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... lows of their experiences. Going to “starposts” demonstrates the wonderful experiences, while “creeping through seaweed” reflects the bad days and problems of life (11-12). Thus, Walker is able to cleverly depict her relationship while giving her husband the praise for the continuing relationship.

While it is clear Margaret Walker credited her husband for their relationship in her poem Love Song for Alex, it is clear the relationship would not have been possible without her complete belief and trust in her husband. By giving her heart to him and considering him the only choice for her mate, Walker makes it possible for her husband to care for her through their life during good and bad times. Therefore, Love Song for Alex is not only a reflection of Walker’s husband it is a reflection of Margaret Walker.

References

Walker, Margaret. Love Song for Alex .

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