Love Poem With Toast

Williams opens “Love Poem with Toast” with a general statement about people, writing that “[s]ome of what we do, we do / to make things happen” (Lines 1-2). He backs up the declaration with examples from everyday life; “the alarm to wake us up, the coffee to perc, / the car to start” (Lines 3-4). While Williams is writing in free verse without strict rhyme and varies his line lengths, these three commonplace images layered on top of each other create a subtle rhythm that will continue throughout the poem. Also, the lines contain one and two syllable words, and the beat tends to fall on the second syllable, as in “the car to start” (Line 4). Though the poem is technically free verse, this continuous rhythm makes this poem blank verse as well (blank verse employs consistent rhythm, while free verse is free from meter and rhyme). The blank verse style with the use of iambs makes for a casual, conversational tone which contrasts with the poet’s blunt philosophical statements. This balancing act between the casual and the profound permeates “Love Poem with Toast” and much of Williams’s poetry.

In addition to an unknown speaker narrating the “Love Poem” mentioned in the title, the title also hints that the setting of the poem revolves around breakfast, since “toast” is a common American breakfast food. This is later confirmed in the last line of the poem when breakfast is mentioned explicitly (Line 22).

In Stanza 2, Williams posits that everything else we do, we do to “keep something from doing something” (Line 6). Examples include “the skin from aging, the hoe from rusting” (Line 7) and “the truth from getting out” (Line 8). Again, the layering of images in iambs (“the skin from aging”; Line 7) that are similar line lengths mirrors Stanza 1 and moves the poem’s rhythm forward. As for the subject of the poem, Williams suggests that the things people try to prevent from happening are typically associated with the passing of time.

Interestingly, the first two examples Williams gives in Stanza 2 are things that we cannot control, although we try. The skin will age, and the hoe will rust as time goes on no matter what we do. Likewise, with the passing of time, truth, according to the poet, will reveal itself. As in Stanza 1, Williams presents big ideas in simple language, using routine household examples such as putting on cream to prevent wrinkles, or more universal ones, like trying to suppress the truth, to analyze why people do what they do.

In Stanza 3, the longest stanza of the poem (9 lines), the speaker posits that people move through life choosing “yes and no,” choosing what they want to happen and what they don’t want to happen, regardless of whether they have any real control over the matter. This is how we “move, as we call it, forward” (Line 11), William writes, drawing on a subtle, dark sense of humor that made him beloved by many readers. This moving “forward” is nothing more than moving closer toward death.

In Lines 12-17, the poet uses repetition, particularly anaphora, the repetition of the first word of a line, to create a quicker, more urgent rhythm. The repetition of the “wa” sound with the word “wanting” rolls like a wave through the third stanza, bringing the reader along to hear the litany of human wants and desires each line depicts. And what do people want? According to the Williams, we want to be loved (Line 12), to be healthy (Line 15), to be safe (Line 13), and we also want more basic, routine things to go as planned. For example, we want “to be home by dark” (Line 16) and we don’t want “to run out of gas” (Line 17). Although our wants seem simple and modest like the language of the poem, they are really about our survival, and love is a part of surviving (Lines 18-22). There is an incantatory, almost songlike rhythm established in this stanza that sets up the conclusion of the poem.

In the last stanza, the poet reveals profound desires, stating that “each of us wants the other / watching at the end” (Lines 18-19). In other words, these lovers wish to have each other at their side when they die. The poet follows these lines with: “as both want not to leave the other alone / as wanting to love beyond this meat and bone” (Lines 21-22), a rhyming couplet charged with meaning, where the poet states these lovers eating toast together, and perhaps all true lovers, do not want to leave each other even after death. The last four lines (Lines 19-22) are the first time in the poem where the lines contain an end rhyme scheme (ABBA), much like a Petrarchan sonnet, but with varied line lengths.

The last line, “we gaze across breakfast and pretend” (Line 22), is another mix of the casual and the magical. The breakfast is routine. But what exactly does “pretend” mean? Perhaps it is that the poem has taken place inside the head of the speaker, and although they have many wants and desires, they do not communicate them with their lover. The poem is somewhat sad and dark, but also empathetic. The poet knows that many things are felt and desired by people and they are not always communicated. In this sense, the poem could be read as an effort to communicate the speaker’s and perhaps all of our unspoken desires. The ending also circles back to the concept of fate and choice. People want many things but don’t have control over some things, especially the larger issues that crop up in the poem like illness, climate change, and death. Because of this, the ending and the “pretend” (Line 22) very much suggest that people try their best to love and live and move forward despite the fact that many wants and desires are outside their control. They pretend that things are all right, that they’ll have a choice in things, despite knowing that all things end. This pretending is therefore both a coping mechanism for inevitability and an acceptance/admission that life ends but that the moments leading up to the end can still be beautiful.