GIFT -Alice Walker

GIFT

-Alice Walker

He said: Here is my soul.
I did not want his soul
but I am a Southerner
and very polite.
I took it lightly
as it was offered. But did not
chain it down.
I loved it and tended
it. I would hand it back
as good as new.

He said: How dare you want
my soul! Give it back!
How greedy you are!
It is a trait
I had not noticed
before!
I said: But your soul
never left you. It was only
a heavy thought from
your childhood
passed to me for safekeeping.

But he never believed me.
Until the end
he called me possessive
and held his soul
so tightly
it shrank
to fit his hand.

SUMMARY

1.He said: Here is my soul
I did not want his soul

These lines are from “Gift” a free verse by Alice Walker.  The poem is personal and conversational in tone. Here, being racially discriminated Afro-American woman, she shows how her lover proposed his love seriously and sentimentally.  Her lover seems to be an emotionally half-baked love-sick guy. She knows very well that soon one day he will leave her and forget her. So she takes his words lightly. True love implies freedom, not slavery in the name of possessiveness. So she did not chain him like a dog.  She did not want his soul but respected his love and feelings.

2.He said: How dare you want
my soul! Give it back!
How greedy you are!

These lines are from Alice Walker’s love poem “Gift”.  Some days before, the lover, being a white American proposed the poet, a black woman.  He was so sentimental then and even gifted his soul to her.  Now, out of some misunderstanding, he boils with anger and wants his soul back.  It is actually he who proposed her first.  But now he says that she is so greedy enough to love such a high class American.  These lines reveal that love that expects, gets disappointed and disappears is not at all true love.

3.I said: But your soul
never left you. It was only
a heavy thought from
your childhood
passed to me for safekeeping.

Alice Walker has poured out these lines for her poem “Gift.”  This is simply an awakening reply by a ladylove to her angry lover.  The lover wants his gifted soul back. The ladylove replies that he has always kept his soul with him and his word the other day is only a child’s play.  He thought he loved her, but really didn’t.  Thoughts appear in head but true love feelings arise from heart. He gave his thought to her as if giving a precious object just to keep it safe.  Now he wants his thing back as it is. Is love a diamond necklace to keep in bank’s locker that is woman’s heart? The ladylove means that he never loved her at all.

4.it shrank
to fit his hand.

This is the closing line of the poem “Gift” by Alice Walker.  A lover was angry with his beloved and wanted his gifted soul back.  The lady retorted that he always held his soul with him and never loved her at all.  The lover was emotional, sentimental, egoistic and narrow minded.  So the lady said that he held his soul tightly in such a way that it started shrinking to fit his hand, like a sponge.  It is a witty reply by the lady that the lover would never love any girl in her life truly. He is actually selfish but he calls her a possessive lady.  The poet implies that true love should expand the soul rather shrinking to hand’s size.