After Making Love We Hear Footsteps

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

At first sight "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps" seems as a poem that follows one setting and tone but on second glance the reader would notice that there is a secondary background situation. In other words, there is a hidden, parallel setting and tone between the lines. On the one hand we have the two partners having a sexual intercourse and on the other there is the child feeling insecure in the big house. The two partners suddenly turn into parents, who have been interrupted in the act of consuming their relationship but the reader comes to realize that it is for the better of the situation.

For I can snore like a bullhorn

or play loud music

or sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman

and Fergus will only sink deeper

into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash,

The speaker does not directly start with description of the sexual act. He opens by listing different and typical situations that supposedly would disturb the sleep of anyone but not of his son. From the first five lines the reader draws conclusions that the speaker is a large, powerful man "For I can snore like a bullhorn". The idea of the powerful man is also hinted in the name of the speaker’s son – Fergus. After a brief research it turned out that the name originates from Ireland and Scotland. It was a popular name amongst the Celts in Ireland and the Picts in Scotland and means "man-strength" or "virility". Knowing that the reader gets the feeling of stronger connection between the child and his father. Like the father has imposed his own characteristics on his son via the forename of his child.

When the speaker observes the sleep of his son it appears that slumber is almost undisturbed - "Fergus will only sink deeper" but in the very next line - "into his dreamless sleep, which goes by all in one flash", it seems as if Fergus never experienced calm peaceful night sleep. An overview of the poem conveys the image of a man illustrating the moment when he and his spouse are getting intimate and their child has the habit of sneaking into their room into the middle of their love making session.

but let there be that heavy breathing

or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house

and he will wrench himself awake

and make for it on the run –

For most people it is easy to envisage and understand this surface picture no matter if they have experienced it or not. The child is a product of their love and this poem is about the relationship between the parents and their most precious. However, as I already mentioned, there is a secondary tone and setting that is going on throughout the poem. It is not until the reader focuses his/her attention onto the structure and the word ordering until he/she notices this subsequent picture.

In the first five lines the author uses words as "bullhorn", "loud" and "relatively sober". By creating this image Kinnell puts Fergus and the reader into the same position. They both choose to ignore the obnoxiousness. However, when it comes to the quiet and soft sounds created by the consumption of their love the reader starts, as well as Fergus, to feel more involved within the situation. In the second stanza the attention is switched towards the intimacy of the two partners. The author uses euphemisms to depict a picture of tenderness and love rather than a vulgar act or a striking passion. He focuses on the affection between the two lovers and expresses it through words and expressions as "after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies ". What awakes the child is their quite and gentle love making. Kinnel creates the illusion that all these emotions and feeling are within one person and he relates them not just to the participants in the poem. Moreover, by relating the reader to the child he conveys that feeling and affection to the reader, too.

The most striking thing about the poem is the first stanza, which consists only of one sentence. By doing that the author creates a feeling of wholeness. Another very interesting thing that occurs in the first stanza is how Kinnell combines the concepts of pastand present into this one sentence. For example the manifestations of the past are the images the speaker describes as usual, as repeated events like the snoring, the loud music and the "sit up talking with any reasonably sober Irishman". The image of the present is hinted into the situation just before the two lovers are interrupted – "as now, we lie together, after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies," where the word "now" is the most obvious marker of the present. We also have the use of the Present Simple:

and he appears—in his baseball pajamas, it happens,

the neck opening so small he has to screw them on—

and flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep,

And in the second stanza the circle is completed – "this blessing love gives again into our arms."

In his poem "After Making Love We Hear Footsteps" Galway Kinnell does not only depict the idea of the connection between the parents and their child. He also interweaves the idea that there is a difference between sex and love. Through love and sex an indestructible relationship can be made. Moreover, throughout the poem line by line the reader starts to get closer to the participants in the poem until he or she starts to identify him or herself. The poem speaks about the universal relationship that anybody can associate with.