Convenience — Summary

Dave BontaContemplative

love if convenient would be high treason

a peace made on disadvantageous terms with break-up and feud

a room is the last enemy to all the world

falling from time into desire

no hand or pinion full of consequence

should crowd into such a hole

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

The speaker argues that love should never be a matter of convenience. If it is, it becomes a kind of betrayal, "high treason" against what love ought to be. The second stanza makes the point sharper: convenient love is like a peace signed on bad terms, a truce that only papers over break-up and feud rather than settling anything.

The poem then narrows to a single room, which it calls "the last enemy to all the world." The image suggests a small, closed-off space where two people shut out everything else, and the poem seems wary of that retreat. Falling "from time into desire" has a dizzy, weightless feel, as if desire pulls us out of ordinary life. The final lines say that nothing with real force or consequence, not even a hand or a wing, should be squeezed into "such a hole."

The mood is stern and a little cold, more argument than confession. The speaker sounds guarded, even scornful, of love that settles for small and easy.

Read also

More by Dave Bonta

All poems
ContemplativeDave Bonta

Plea bargain

I hear half a beat of drum to serve time have half a hope in the meantime praise God
DreamyDave Bonta

Cibola 3

I awake in the dark and shake free of sheets & blankets, of down-filled quilt. The rituals of waking– the long, hot shower, the coffee–give
ContemplativeDave Bonta

In good light

On a maple’s pale bark, a zigzag ladder—old tooth-marks from a wandering snail? Green islands of moss