“Law, Like Love” by WH Auden
Originally at https://notes.shaunagm.net/post/157242348182/ldquo-law-like-love-rdquo-by-wh-auden
For Valentine’s Day, I want to talk about the poem I posted the other day, “Law, Like Love” by WH Auden, and why it means so much to me.
The majority of the poem is fairly light-hearted, as the poet goes through all the different ways we can conceive of the law, from the word of god to the rule of the mob to the idea that it’s just a local custom like clothes or language. It is only in the last stanza that we see how the poet thinks of law. He thinks of it like love, and so do I.
Law is what binds human beings together. It ennobles us and protects us. It asks us to sacrifice and be sacrificed for. It is embodied by individual relationships but it also transcends them. Law applies to us all equally, and in that way it is a manifestation of unconditional love.
Like love, we don’t know where the desire for law comes from (“we don’t know where or why”)
Like love, we cannot force people to desire law, nor can we escape our own desire for law (“we can’t compel or fly”)
Like love, the actual experience of law can be dysfunctional or abusive (“we often weep”)
Like love, law can be lost when our society stops desiring and respecting it (“we seldom keep”)
When I say “I love my country” what I mean, more than anything, is that I will work to create and abide by a fair and compassionate system of laws that allow us all to flourish. When I say “Republicans do not love this country” or “Trump does not love this country” I mean that they have lost any respect they once had for the law. They are no longer ennobled by it, they will not sacrifice for it, they will not protect it.
A member of the government makes a literal and figurative pledge to the law, similar to but of greater impact than the pledge that brides and grooms make to each other on their wedding days. When I see them breaking the law, weakening the law, I feel personally betrayed.
But their betrayal does not stop me from affirming my own commitment and making my own pledge: to protect and defend, for better or for worse, to the best of my ability, as long as I live.