Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

John Frederick Nims' "Lunch with Old Flame" is a brief but potent reflection on the passage of time and the transformation of romantic intensity into something subdued and distant. In just two lines, Nims captures a sense of loss, nostalgia, and the inevitable cooling of once-fiery love. The poem’s form—a single rhyming couplet—mirrors the conciseness of the moment it describes, as if the encounter itself is just a fleeting shadow of what once was.

The first line—"A pity: the midnight linen, passion's map,"—immediately evokes a past filled with intimacy. The phrase "midnight linen" suggests the sheets of a bed, the physical setting of past love, while "passion's map" turns those sheets into something topographical, a landscape of desire and exploration. The metaphor hints at a time when love was uncharted and thrilling, full of intensity and movement. The use of "map" also implies a sense of direction and purpose that once guided the relationship, now lost.

The second line—"Shrunk to this pallor of napkins in our lap."—delivers the contrast with the present moment. The word "shrunk" suggests a diminishing, a contraction of what was once vast and boundless. Instead of "midnight linen," the present is reduced to "napkins," a mundane, impersonal object associated with polite dining rather than intimacy. The "pallor" of these napkins further reinforces the sense of lifelessness and absence of warmth. What was once vibrant and consuming has faded into something pale and routine, as if the embers of passion have cooled to mere formality.

The choice of setting—lunch, rather than dinner—also plays into this effect. Lunch is a daytime meal, often casual and without the romance of candlelit dinners. It implies a relationship that has transitioned from secrecy and intensity to something socially acceptable, perhaps even obligatory. The contrast between "midnight" and "lap" suggests that what was once private and thrilling has now become something commonplace and decorous.

By structuring the poem as a single couplet, Nims encapsulates the brevity of the moment and the finality of love’s transformation. The rhyme—"map/lap"—provides a smooth, inevitable closure, just as the poem itself seems to accept the fate of this once-burning love. In its minimalism, "Lunch with Old Flame" achieves a profound emotional weight, demonstrating that sometimes, the smallest of poems can carry the greatest of losses.

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