In the poem “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps”, Galway Kennel creates the speaker in a way to really portray what he believes true love to be once “long-married”. The author gives great sensory details, engulfing you into the night that he produced from these fickle meters. The speaker in the poem puts family high on this list of priorities as the author shows a significant amount Of importance to them from using a few clever poetic devices.
Although Kennel could have put a little more thought into scansion to create even more of a deeper meaning, this poem is very emotional and touching to the senses as well as giving great morality to what a man should perceive “making love” to be. In the beginning of this poem, the speaker talks about how he could choose to spend his night sleeping interact in a personal hobby like “playing loud music” or chatting it up with some friends(Kennel 953). However ” Ferguson will only sink deeper into his dreamless sleep”, meaning his abilities and strength will only fade into his meaningless night that will go by in one flash.
Yet, if his fife were to “cry anywhere in the house” or call out for his love, he would “wrench himself awake “and stop in his tracks to comfort her desires as they are his too (their desire being to make love) (Kennel 953). This shows how the speaker gives a level of unimportance to those things compared to his wife. Once this desire has been satisfied they lay quietly ,holding each other “touching along the length of [their] bodies” ,showing admiration of one another until their son walks through the door in his baseball pajamas(Kennel 953).
Then the speaker observes the child’s attire, and how small the neck ole is compared to the boys head. Making him ‘ under about the mental capacity of baseball players” and his son as the reader begins to see the importance of this child to the speaker (Kennel 953). The boy wants to join in on the couples “loving and snuggling”, so he plops down between them, letting the reader know that the parents care as much for the child as they do themselves (Kennel 953) . Next, the boy gives hugs, and falls fast to sleep happy to be the child he is.
Then, the emotion exponentially breaks through when the man and his wife look up at each other “and smile” as they member his making (Kennel 954). The speaker then sees the “the blessing love gives again into [their] arms”, realizing the all around beauty of true love making (Kennel 954). The speaker really adds some exaggeration to the speakers words when his wife “[cries]” for him, though she does not literally cry, she just longs for him greatly (Kennel 954).
Another good example of this is when the speaker says he will ‘Wrench himself awake” if his wife calls for him instead of just awaking. The authors’ hyperbolic approach gives great depth to these words. Also, in he very first line, the author starts off this poem by inputting a metaphor, comparing the speakers snore to a bullhorn. By adding to the number of poetic devices Kennel swiftly uses, imagery is brilliantly found when the speaker mentions how their son lays between them, “his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child” (Kennel 954).
Then “in the half darkness [the couple began to] look at each other and smile” (Kennel 953). This technique is beautiful, giving the reader more insight of their setting and emotion generated from the boy to the man and his wife. Although, the poem does reach emotion before the boy even approaches, like how the speaker will wrench himself awake if his wife calls to make love(showing how much he cares for her needs and wants) . Then gives you clarity of this when their son asks “are you loving and snuggling? May I join? , as it is rhetorically answered when he jumps in bed with his parents in their after- love-making-cuddle. Love and appreciation is too shown when the speaker mentions in the last line how love blesses them again, into their arms. This shows passion and belonging for both the boy and the father. Originality of the poem is derived from the fact that this poem is from a man’s perspective, finding love to be so blessing. It is usually the woman who becomes sentimental towards these types of things, for women are typically more emotional of the two sexes.
As try not to stereotype men, in today’s society being an emotional man makes you less of one but, in the eyes of love, the man in this poem does not seem to care. With morality taking control, the poem “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” tells a man what should be seen of love, the making of it and how children should be made rather than a mistake or unwanted. Many men do not appreciate the genuine love of a woman and children, nor do we see respect given to them or the idea of settling down and being “long-married”.
Few men seem to see the blessing of making love and what it is for rather than just the physical pleasure. Although the author doesn’t give too much thought into letting the reader know that the characters are in an outside world, he does include the universal baseball player to place a reminder that in fact they are in a world, even if it’s in a world of their own. The author Galway Kennel does not give enough attention to the scansion of he poem as the feet run from one to nine meters.
Yet this may make the reader notice the wide various of feet in each meter, comparing to them footsteps. Figuratively speaking, the husband doesn’t mind drinking with a friend, sitting up to “play loud music” or having a good night’s rest to “snore like a bullhorn”, but would leave it all in a second to be with his wife if she asked him to(Kennel 953). The author gives emphasis of his loyalty by adding some trochaic meters to a mostly iambic poem, showing reader how important the wife is to the husband.
And if she did want him, after making eve they would later relax in each others arms in complete undivided happiness as they have done before, for their love is long lived, This undivided happiness is shown when the words “and smile” are isolated into their own separate line. However, as their child approaches they are then reminded what their love has given back to them by the joy and extra love he brings and they do not hesitate share this with him. In conclusion, choosing this poem to analyze was not difficult because of the senses it reaches while reading it.
The author does a great job in creating imagery, making the reader see as the boy walks into the doorway to when he falls asleep happily. Emotion shines through the cracks of this poem helping portray the moral lesson this poem has to give. This being that making love is not just about the physical pleasure most men fiend for but about the sentimental value making love has to offer. The author gives a distinct definition of making love, that it is not just lust or for fun but it is for a life time of happiness and comfort as the people around you are the cause and affects of this.
Although Kennel could have added more definition to the scansion of the poem. For it would have given an even more of a meaning and something for a critic to dig deeper into. Yet the figurative meaning itself is so rich, I’m not sure that he even needed to pay more attention to scansion. The author gave the speak Kerr such a good insight of the importance of family and interrelationship bonding moments that transcend making love enlightenment.
