Edwin Morgan's "Strawberries" and John Frederick Nims" "Love Poem" depict two different views on love. The poems are similar in that they both describe their feelings of love for a woman; however, their stands on love differ immensely. Who their focus is directed to, their age, and what kind of love they feel are all on opposite sides of the spectrum.
For instance, in "Strawberries," the protagonist focuses on his own experiences and retells his encounter with love from his point of view. He says, "There were never strawberries/ like the ones we had/ that sultry afternoon," which of course, is his own interpretation. He reminisces his experience and wants to experience it again with the same satisfaction for him when he tells his love, "lean back again" and "let me love you." Although he refers to the woman he makes love to, he never gives any indication to the experience she feels or felt. However, in "Love Poem" the protagonist focuses his entire poem on the woman he loves. "Only/ With words and people and love you move at ease," describes his "clumsiest" and "unpredictable dear" and not himself. He "will study wry music for" her "sake" because his love focuses on how to accommodate her and not himself. .
Furthermore, the two poems differ in the age ranges of the writers of the poems and the maturity of the protagonist's love for their women. In "Strawberries" one can automatically assume that the author is young by the way he uses "strawberries" "dipped" "in sugar" as a simile for love. He exaggerates how "There were never strawberries/ like the ones" him and his lover enjoyed "that sultry afternoon" because in his inexperience he thinks he needs to heighten and elevate even the smallest event in order for it to be recognized and makes it sexual. Indeed, he is carefree, like most young people, and wants "the storm to wash the plates" as he relishes in the thoughts of spending time with his lover rather than cleaning up after himself.
