A Healthy Lifestyle – The New Regime
The couple in the poem “The New Regime” discusses switching to a healthier lifestyle, where they would eat better, drink less and perform regular sportive activities.
In line 12, the narrator reveals that for them a healthy lifestyle is synonymous to being “successful, rich and thin” as well as being an improvement to the depth of their relationship. However, the narrator also implies that they think it is impossible to be both living healthily and enjoying life.
Finding Joy in Everyday Moments – The Orange
The poem “The Orange” is centered on the narrator’s delight in having bought a very big orange, which leads them to exclaim that lately a lot of trivial things bring them joy.
While the narrator’s life seems to primarily consist of trivial, unexciting moments, they have begun to take pleasure in the simplest things and state how this has improved their way of life.
The last line hints that the narrator is freshly in love and that this has been the reason they suddenly find joy in ordinary moments. This however, is unimportant for the majority of the poem as the narrator does not link this joy to romantic feelings.
The Irrationality of Love – After The Lunch
The narrator of the poem “After The Lunch” attempts to convince themselves that they are not in love with the unnamed person they had lunch with.
At first, they try to focus on the weather and when this does not work, begin to rationalize why they believe they are in love (trying to blame alcohol). Eventually, they try to talk down the person they are in love with, claiming that they are “ a fool” (l. 10).
Why the narrator does not want to be in love with that person is never made clear. It might simply be that the narrator is afraid to fall in love and get hurt or it might be that the other person is unavailable or a bad match for whatever reasons.
In the last stanza however, the narrator has to concede that rational arguments will never win over what the heart wants.
