Souveniers Comments

The third stanza of this poem will become a treasured illustration of romantic love at its very best. If the poem had ended there. some might object, and indeed the last stanza tells a different truth equally important. But I want to dwell in and for that third stanza, because so much literature is about the failure of love and coping with its failure. It is increasingly rare to find a simple pure statement of the truth of love and why we pursue it as the essence of our human happiness. You have done so in this poem.