The Absence of The Lover in Edwin Morgan’s Love Poems
The Use of Objects and Images as Mementos
‘The Second Life’ of Edwin Morgan, written in 1968, is considered as his coming-out poem by the author himself. Throughout ‘One Cigarette’, ‘Absence’ and ‘Strawberries’, the absence of the lover is conveyed by using objects and images as mementos of their relationship. Thus, reinforcing the lovers’ separation and the question of the addressee’s gender. Plus, ‘Dear man, my love goes out in waves’, dated 1987, will support the absence of the loved one and the literal acceptance of Edwin Morgan’s own homosexuality, encountered in ‘The Second Life’. All the poems are taken from the New Selected Poems collection.
© Michael Almeida Machado
References
Morgan, Edwin. New Selected Poems. Manchester: Carcanet, 2000.
Boddy, Kasia. “Edwin Morgan’s Adventure in Calamerica”. The Yale Journal of Criticism, 13:1, 2000. 177-194.
Edgecombe, Rodney Stenning. “The Poetry of Edwin Morgan” Dalhousie Review. 1983. 668-679.
Morgan, Edwin. Interview by Christopher Whyte. “Power from things not declared”, Nothing Not Giving Messages: Reflections on Work and Life. Ed. Hamish Whyte. Edinburgh, 1990.
—. Interview by Gerry Cambridge. “Edwin Morgan in conversation”, The Dark Horse, 1997.
Image
Alexander Moffat, Edwin Morgan, 1920-2010, Poet, oil on canvas, 1980. (Found on: https://www.nationalgalleries.org/art-and-artists/48560)
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Michael Almeida Machado 