Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Frederick Nims’ "Love’s Progress" is a reflection on the evolution of love, tracing its movement from youthful infatuation to a more profound, enduring connection. Structured in two sonnet-like sections, the poem juxtaposes the carefree, almost naïve romance of the past with the deep and singular love that now defines the speaker’s life. Nims employs a playful yet reflective tone, blending humor with philosophical meditation on love’s mutability.

The first section situates the reader in Liguria, along Italy’s rocky coastline, evoking a scene of youthful indulgence. The lovers find themselves in a "grottoed recess," a natural alcove shaped by the sea, symbolizing a private world, both idyllic and temporary. The setting itself—a secluded old inn accessible only by boat—suggests exclusivity, reinforcing the notion of love as a space apart from the everyday. This is further emphasized by their "drunkenness"—not just from wine but from "the sun and silliness," a phrase that captures the unguarded joy of early love. However, the seemingly intimate moment is revealed to be an illusion, as the speaker later realizes they were being watched by a "dozen people." This humorous deflation of their romanticized secrecy serves as a reminder that early love is often self-absorbed, unmindful of the broader world. The "bluff old salt," a figure of experience, provides a wry critique—"Should one / Practice these moonlight mysteries in the sun?"—suggesting that such love belongs in the shadowed realm of night and fantasy, not the clear light of day.

The second section shifts from recollection to a meditation on love’s transformation over time. The opening lines parody conventional poetic expressions of love, with the speaker recalling his own youthful rhyming of "dune light … June light," a clichéd, almost adolescent attempt at romantic verse. Yet, with the passage of time, love that once felt eternal has become "water under a bridge burned long ago," the image encapsulating not only the idea of moving on but also the impossibility of return. The phrase "burned long ago" suggests a deliberate severing, reinforcing the idea that past love is irretrievable.

However, rather than dwelling on nostalgia or loss, the speaker reorients his understanding of love in the present. The poem pivots towards the current relationship, with the statement "Now love means you. You/love—the two synonymous." This marks a profound shift from love as a fleeting experience to love as an embodied presence. No longer abstract or interchangeable, love is now rooted in a single person. The enjambment of "You/love" visually fuses the two, reinforcing their inseparability.

Memory, too, undergoes a transformation. While the past love was marked by transience—defined by places, sensations, and moments that ultimately faded—the present love has rewritten personal history. The speaker declares, "Memory’s awash in you; you’ve grown eponymous," suggesting that his beloved has become the very definition of love, replacing all past associations. The final couplet—"If, I say, / Each land we travel were renamed as You, / That name were truer than all maps are true."—elevates this idea to a metaphysical level. The beloved does not merely exist within the speaker’s world but reshapes it entirely. Love is no longer something to be pursued in distant lands; rather, the beloved’s presence defines the geography of his emotional life.

The structure of "Love’s Progress" mirrors its thematic arc. The first section, written in a narrative mode, captures the excitement, naivety, and humor of youthful love, while the second section adopts a more meditative, philosophical tone. The shift in poetic voice mirrors the speaker’s own emotional journey—from infatuation to a mature and singular devotion.

Throughout the poem, Nims plays with time, contrasting the past’s ephemeral joys with the present’s depth and continuity. The use of water imagery—waves shaping rock, love flowing under a burned bridge, memory being "awash"—reinforces the fluidity of experience and the way love, like the tides, shifts and reforms. Yet, unlike the waves that erase the shore’s contours, the present love asserts itself as something fixed, something more enduring than the shifting landscapes of memory.

"Love’s Progress" ultimately celebrates not just love’s resilience but its power to redefine the self. The speaker does not merely replace one love with another but finds in his current love a new way of understanding the past and future alike. Where past love was a performance—"moonlight mysteries in the sun"—this love is a certainty, a force that renders all other maps obsolete.

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