Written after a Walk before Supper

Song Meaning

This poem opens with a narrator confessing a reluctance to find a likeness for a friend, V—ker, and his wife. Despite this aversion, the narrator embarks on a "Voyage of Discovery" through various elements to find a comparison. The immediate tone is one of playful, almost grudging, observation, setting up a contrast between the narrator's task and the subjects themselves. The central tension arises from the stark, almost grotesque, physical descriptions of the couple. V—ker's wife is depicted as "large and round beyond belief," a "superfluity of beef," whose mind and body are "composed of kitchen-grease." Her husband, in contrast, is "meagre bit of littleness," so thin he could "totter on the edge of Nothing." This extreme physical disparity forms the core of the narrator's challenge in finding a fitting simile. The most striking craft element is the use of vivid, unflattering imagery and the eventual, almost reluctant, simile offered by "Madam Memory." The description of the wife as "Vulgarity enshrin'd in blubber" and the husband as so thin he could "hide / Snug in the collops of her side" are particularly memorable. The final comparison to "A little Ape with huge She-Bear / Link'd by hapless chain together" crystallizes the narrator's perception of their mismatched union. These lyrics are effective because they use sharp, exaggerated physical details to create a humorous yet critical portrait of a couple. The narrator's initial struggle and eventual, almost forced, comparison highlight the absurdity they perceive. The poem concludes abruptly with the arrival of supper, cutting off further contemplation and leaving the reader with the lingering, comical image of the ape and the bear.