Wendy Cope’s Poems: Two Cures For Love

I don’t want to say too much today about Wendy Cope -this great poet that convinced me to read my first english poems ever- or her work, which I find so extraordinary that I even used it as a citation in my PhD thesis. Just that I fell in love with her words immediately and this collection of selected poems from 1979-2006 made it easy to dig into her work since this edition identifies the references, and background information, which gives readers a completely new inside into her poetry.

These are some of my favorites:

Two Cures for Love

1. Don’t see him. Don’t phone or write a letter.
2. The easy way: get to know him better.

A Christmas Poem

At Christmas little children sing and merry bells jingle,
The cold winter air makes our hands and faces tingle
And happy families go to church and cheerily they
mingle
And the whole business in unbelievable dreadful, if
you’re single.

After the Lunch

On Waterloo Bridge, where we said our goodbyes,
The weather conditions bring tears to my eyes.
I wipe them away with a black woolly glove
And try not to notice I’ve fallen in love.

On Waterloo Bridge I am trying to think:
This is nothing. You’re high on the charm and the drink.
But the juke-box inside me is playing a song
That says something different. And when was it wrong?

On Waterloo Bridge with the wind in my hair
I am tempted to skip. You’re a fool. I don’t care.
The head does its best but the heart is the boss –
I admit it before I am halfway across.

All three poems excerpts from Wendy Cope’s book Two Cures for Love.

More information about Wendy Cope and her work: Wikipedia, Poetry Archive, British Council Literature.

Like always: All credits appear after clicking the links.