After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

After Making Love We Hear Footsteps
Galway Kinnell 300-301

For I can snore like a bullhorn
or play loud music
or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman
and Fergus will only sink deeper
into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,
but let there be that heavy breathing
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house
and he will wrench himself awake
and make for it on the run--as now, we lie together,
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies,
familiar touch of the long-married,
and he appears--in his baseball pajamas, it happens,
the neck opening so small
he has to screw them on, which one day may make him wonder
about the mental capacity of baseball players--
and flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to
sleep,
his face gleaming with satisfaction at being this very child.

In the half darkness we look at each other
and smile
and touch arms across his little, startingly muscled body--
this one whom habit of memory propels to the ground of his
making,
sleeper only the mortal sounds can sing awake,
this blessing love gives again into our arms.


This poem turned out to be about something completely different than expected, which made it even better than I thought it would be. The great imagery and depiction of this situation is really great and achieves its purpose so well. The poem describes the situation where a married couple is making love and awoken by the noise, their son comes into their room and ends up sleeping in the bed between them. The poem begins with a feeling of disruption as the boy interrupts his parents, but the tone shifts to loving and caring towards the son. The author isolates "smile" when talking about the child snuggled in their bed and concludes by calling him a "blessing" given into their arms by love. The start of the poem leads the reader to believe that it will be about the interruption in a negative light, but it is really much more tender, showing the true subject as the love the parents have for their child. He uses great imagery to depict the scene noting a "bullhorn" for a snore and the loudness of a conversation with an Irishman. Kinnell does a wonderful job describing the child in his "baseball pajamas." These details help the reader not only understand the poem but be drawn into it even more. The form is very interesting though I am still unsure of the purpose. The words "sleep," "smile," and "making" are all isolated most likely because they are all significant words that hold a great deal of weight with the poems meaning, but the reason for the form is still puzzling. I especially love the part where the couple "smile/ and touch arms across his little, startingly muscled body." This line shows the loving relationship between husband and wife as well as the mutual devotion and care the parents have for the child.