1. Kissing by Fleur Adcock
Poem = about love + mature love
It is effectively the same
o ‘seeing isn’t everything’
o No matter what age you are same feeling inside you. You aren’t condintioned to
your surroundings
Extra ordinary enjambment – these are complicated poetic sentences
Difficult syntax (arrangement of clauses + grammar)
o Difficult to break them down
o Difficulty of syntax represents complexity of love
Line 1/2- allusion to Yates poem
Line 2 – physically linked
Line 3 – pretending because they are mostly concerned with each other, not really looking at
lilies
Line 5 – ‘which two’ – the lovers
o When the two young lovers kiss, they forget about everything – water lilies, nest
o Love = blind, doesn’t matter what’s around you, only what’s inside
Nest = symbol of marriage – some sort of future marriage?  they forget those plans
Line 6 to 10 – again love is personal, and they don’t worry about they’re surroundings. They
are young + have their whole life in front of them
A comparison between the romantic behaviour of the young and older lovers, set againstthe
backdrop of the relentless passage of time
Structure reflects basic theme of poem:
o V1 = Romanic attitudes and behaviour of young love
o V2 = Romanic attitudes and behaviour of old love
V1 = we have a picture of young love – confident, sure of itself, is proud, they display their
love, it is in the air
o The language involved is favourable
o There is no critical language in this
o Proud, fresh
o Show respect to other young loving couples – ‘make courteous detours’
o They recognise other young lovers
o They are limited to the present. They have no vision or concept of the future. They
only care about those of their own age
o To them it seems like this will go on forever ‘they’ve got all day’
o ‘nest of some kind’ – only suggestion which shows concern about future
o When they kiss, everything is forgotten
V2 = mature lovers aren’t proud +displayed – they are furtive
They don’t want to be noticed
Generally unpleasant, suspicious
Contrasting open air love of young, with indoor love of old lovers

2. Contrast between ‘courteous detours’ of young lovers and how old lovers don’t cling to each
other and have their hands in each other’s clothing
They are concerned with other people’s opinions
They restrain themselves
The dicition + rhythm changes here
‘It hurts. It may leave marks’ – ‘it’ – harsh vocabulary is prejudicial, not favourable
They have lack of pride
Line 14/15 – vivid image of the old people kissing – don’t get this in verse 1
Line 19 – awkward – deliberately awkward to perhaps reflect awkwardness of mature love
the rhythm too is awkward
These are great images and references to passage of time:
o River – passage of time
o It’s the young’s river, they own it, they feel they are in charge
o They feel they can control time
o Line 9 – they can not see they will grow old
o Line 11 – the fact they cant see it means they are blind – irony , they can’t see the
future but regardless they will grow old
o Youth are blind – method = irony
There is an extensive use of enjambment – reflects passage of time – continuous like time
Very long poetic sentences – 6 line poetic sentence
V2 = caesura reflects complexity of life
Line 20 – future goes on for young but future also goes on for the old – young and old lovers
BOTH have futures
Subliminal favour of young love – it is implicit rather than explicit
Prejudice against mature love
Depictions are not elegant
Emphasis in indoor rather than outdoor – old are in a taxi rather than making love outdoors
Possibility that the poet feels as if she is ashamed of her own impulses