Cherish(2014) Comments

thanks Daniel for reading

This is one of the most tender poems I have read. And also one of the least selfish. The speaker of the poem displays the most generous attitude toward the woman he loves, and I can only say he has one of the finest moral spirits. Love itself is a vexed issue: we humans have a NEED for it and that brings in an element of selfishness - it's inevitable. But this speaker rises above those givens and sincerely only wants to make things better for the beloved without expecting anything in return. That is a rare emotion. The language of the poem supports his confession of selfless love. It is expansive, comprehensive, eloquent. It is the kind of overstatement which can overwhelm the other person, but here it strikes me as an overflow of the joy of his giving nature.