Love’s Dog (Jen Hadfield)

Jen Hadfield's poem "Love’s Dog" offers a playful yet insightful exploration of the complexities of love. Through a series of contrasts, the poem delves into the dual nature of love, highlighting both its joys and its pitfalls. You can read the poem below and find analysis further down the page.

Love’s Dog by Jen Hadfield

What I love about love is its diagnosis

What I hate about love is its prognosis

What I hate about love is its me me me 

What I love about love is its Eat-me/Drink-me

What I love about love is its petting zoo

What I love about love is its zookeeper – you

What I love about love is its truth serum

What I hate about love is its shrinking potion

What I love about love is its doubloons

What I love about love is its bird-bones

What I hate about love is its boil-wash

What I love about love is its spin-cycle

What I loathe about love is its burnt toast and bonemeal

What I hate about love is its bent cigarette

What I love about love is its pirate

What I hate about love is its sick parrot

Analysis:

Contrasts: The poem is structured around a series of contrasts, with each pair of lines presenting opposing perspectives on love. This juxtaposition serves to highlight the multifaceted nature of love and the speaker's ambivalent feelings towards it.

Positive Aspects of Love: The speaker expresses appreciation for certain aspects of love, such as its ability to bring people together ("its petting zoo") and its capacity for honesty ("its truth serum"). These moments of admiration reveal the speaker's fondness for love despite its challenges.

Negative Aspects of Love: Conversely, the speaker also voices frustration with certain aspects of love, such as its selfishness ("its me me me") and its tendency to cause pain and disillusionment ("its prognosis"). These moments of criticism reflect the speaker's disillusionment with the darker side of love.

Imagery: The poem employs vivid imagery to evoke the various aspects of love, from its warmth and intimacy ("its petting zoo") to its potential for destruction ("its shrinking potion"). This imagery adds depth and texture to the speaker's reflections on love.

Humour: Despite the serious subject matter, the poem maintains a light hearted tone through its use of humour and wordplay. This humour serves to alleviate some of the tension surrounding the theme of love and allows the speaker to explore their feelings in a more playful manner.

Themes:

Complexity of Love: The poem explores the multifaceted nature of love, acknowledging both its positive and negative aspects.

Ambivalence: The speaker's ambivalent feelings towards love are a central theme of the poem, as they navigate the conflicting emotions and experiences associated with love.

Expectations vs. Reality: The poem touches on the disparity between the idealised notion of love and the harsh realities of romantic relationships, highlighting the speaker's disillusionment with love's imperfections.

Humour and Irony: The use of humour and irony throughout the poem adds depth and nuance to the exploration of love, allowing the speaker to confront difficult emotions with wit and levity.

Language and Structure:

Repetition: The repetition of the phrase "What I love about love" and "What I hate about love" creates a rhythmic pattern and reinforces the poem's thematic exploration of contrasts.

Wordplay: The poem features wordplay and clever turns of phrase, such as "Eat-me/Drink-me" and "pirate/sick parrot," which add to its playful and whimsical tone.

Free Verse: The poem is written in free verse, allowing for flexibility and creativity in its structure and form. This lack of strict meter or rhyme scheme mirrors the fluidity and unpredictability of love itself.

Compactness: The brevity of each pair of lines lends a sense of conciseness and immediacy to the poem, allowing the speaker to convey their thoughts and emotions in a succinct manner.

Conclusion:

Love’s Dog by Jen Hadfield is a witty and thought-provoking exploration of love's complexities. Through its use of contrasts, imagery, and humour, the poem offers insights into the contradictory nature of love and the speaker's nuanced relationship with it. Ultimately, the poem invites readers to reflect on their own experiences with love and the myriad emotions it can evoke.

You can find analysis of all the Edexcel Relationships Poetry Anthology Poems here.