Love Between a Parent and Child in After Making Love We Hear Footsteps
There are several different definitions for the word love. Love is a simple four-letter word, with a multitude of caring and feeling behind it. There is a difference between loving somebody and being in love with somebody. The love between two best friends or between a husband and wife are the types of love that people want to last forever. However, there are no guarantees that it will last forever. Furthermore, the love between family members and the love between a parent and child is the kind of love that will last a life time.
In Galway Kinnell’s poem “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” Kinnell writes about the love between a parent and child. Galway Kinnell describes the familiar middle of the night act of a child climbing into bed with the parents. The poem begins with the father describing that no matter how much noise is being made, the child is able to sleep through anything. For example, Galway Kinnell states:
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,
However, let there be a slight sound from the parents when they want to be alone and the child wakes up instantly. For example, Galway Kinnell writes in his poem:
but let there be that heavy breathing
or a stifled come-cry anywhere in the house
and he will wrench himself awake
Being a parent has many responsibilities. Parents have to give up a lot of their own privacy and time when it comes to their children. For example, starting on line sixteen, Galway Kinnell writes:
after making love, quiet, touching along the length of our bodies,
familiar touch of the long-married,
and he appears – in his baseball pajamas, it happens,
Like many children, the young boy likes to climb into the parents’ bed. The feeling of security that the parents give by being there helps the young boy sleep at night. For example, Galway Kinnell writes:
and says, “Are you loving and snuggling? May I join?”
he flops down between us and hugs us and snuggles himself to sleep,
his face gleaming...
