Big love — Summary

Dave BontaRomantic

I am big like a declaration of war or a laugh in church but you must have somebody and therefore care for that sum of others that I am

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 describes themselves as huge, and the two comparisons they choose are telling. A declaration of war and a laugh in church are both loud, disruptive and impossible to ignore. They are also a little dangerous or embarrassing, the kind of thing that makes a room go quiet. So the "big love" of the title seems to be less about a gentle feeling than about something overwhelming.

Then the poem turns on "but you." The speaker addresses someone who "must have somebody" and so can't give everything to one person. The final lines are the most interesting: the speaker is a "sum of others," as if they carry many people, or many selves, inside them. Asking the other person to care for that whole crowd is a big request. The mood is part confident, part vulnerable. The speaker boasts about their size, yet underneath there is a quiet plea: love all of me, even the parts that come with a lot of baggage.

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