17 pages • 34-minute read
A Careful Passion
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Themes
Incompleteness of Love
“A Careful Passion” examines a failing romantic relationship from the perspective of a detached, unhappy lover. The poem conveys a one-sided conversation between a married woman and her lover, as she ends their relationship. Rather than reacting in an emotional manner, the speaker maintains aloofness, never speaking anything aloud in response to her statements, and focuses on the landscape around him. His intentions are often unclear: Is he simply unsatisfied in their relationship, and thus authentically detached and unbothered by the breakup? Or is he acting in a self-preserving way, shutting himself off from her to protect his own heart? He accedes, “Hearts learn to die well that have died before” (Line 23), suggesting that he has experience with heartbreak and understands that life will go on. However, he is also haunted by the “self-seeking heart / So desperate for some mirror to believe” (Lines 37-38), suggesting that he craves romantic love and companionship, and that the failure of this relationship has also been a disappointment in its incompleteness.
Failure to Communicate
Throughout “A Careful Passion,” both the speaker and his lover fail to communicate effectively with each other. Walcott’s use of ambiguous dialogue, not assigned to either party, heightens this sense and draws attention to the fact that when the lover speaks, the other party does not reply. The poem primarily happens internally, and the reader glimpses some of the speaker’s thoughts and motivations; the lover, however, has no access to these thoughts and remains in the dark as to her partner’s emotional reality. The inability to communicate foments their lack of connection and leads to the final, lonely goodbye in the last stanza. Walcott creates a metaphor for the lovers in the final lines: “Only the gulls, hunting the water’s edge / Wheel like our lives, seeking something worth pity” (Lines 46-47). Because the lovers failed in their attempt to communicate, they return to the cyclical process of attempting, and failing, to achieve love and connection. Like the gulls, they will continue to hunt and seek, but the wheel continues to rotate in the same manner.
Low Expectations and Futility
Walcott sets his speaker up for failure before “A Careful Passion” even begins. The poem’s epigraph establishes the speaker’s low expectations: “Hosanna, I build me house, Lawd, / De rain come wash it ‘way.” Referencing the biblical parable of the man who, not listening to Jesus, built his house on sand only to see it destroyed by storms, Walcott suggests that the speaker is already doomed. Having not established the supports he needs for a healthy relationship, he is incapable of sustaining one; like the house built on sand, the relationship will crumble and wash away.
Walcott further emphasizes this futility when his speaker says, “Hearts learn to die well that have died before” (Line 23). His resignation underscores his feeling that his attempts at love and connection are pointless; no matter what he does, his heart will die again. The poem’s final image suggests that, even in the face of such knowledge, the speaker will continue to try to find connection, and like the gulls, will continue to hunt and “[seek] something worth pity” (Line 47).
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