What Love is Like

Piet Hein

 Love is like
 a pineapple,
 sweet and
 undefinable.

Commentary

This has got to be one of the nicest analogies I have seen - surprising, even a little silly, but oh-so-apt, and with an undefinable sweetness of its own that has me smiling and quoting it to myself at odd intervals. And then there’s the rhyme - it takes a considerable existing reputation to get away with rhyming “pineapple” with “undefinable”, but having gotten away with it, it only serves to make the poem all the more memorable.

The obvious comparison is with Nash, but despite the superficial similarity, I don’t think today’s poem is all that Nashian. True, it’s a short poem with an outrageous rhyme, but unlike a lot of Nash’s work, the rhyme isn’t really the point of the grook - it just serves to add impact to the simile.

— Martin


The Wondering Minstrels, poem #1092 · 13 September 2002

Poem selected by Martin DeMello

Fair use

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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.

Julian Tepper · 13 September 2002

‘What Love is Also Like’

A pineapple leaves in one’s mouth
a taste that is sour.
I dutif’ly note, for your thought,
that, too, is love’s power.

– Julian Tepper

Martin DeMello · 9 October 2002

Thinking about it, the poem’s true revelation is not that love is sweet and undefinable, but that a pineapple is sweet and undefinable.

martin

PLamb2222 · 23 November 2005

hmmm…Undefinable eh? Well, lets go get our friend. His name is Mr. Dictionary.

TearHill · 26 May 2006

See, I studied, New Crit and everything and
any way
I didn’t think nobody could keep up w/Joe but

yo!