The famous poem Two Loves by Lord Alfred Douglas is widely known as a complex and layered love poem that has a characteristically conflicted speaker. The closing line “I am the Love that dare not speak its name” (74) has taken on a life outside of the original text. The power in this one line has captured the hearts of many readers and it is quoted frequently in other media, especially in queer stories. The speaker in this poem alludes quite blatantly to fantasizing about having the freedom to love in many ways openly without judgment. This poem seems to confirm the speaker is what we now call bisexual and is struggling to accept and understand his feelings, which have been demonized by the unaccepting world he came up in. “Two Loves” portrays this inner struggle using decadent yet depressing imagery that begs sympathy from all sorts of readers, queer and straight alike.
Though this poem is famous for its closing statement its opening line is quite important as well. The poem opens with the line “I dreamed I stood upon a little hill” (1) this immediately clarifies the setting of the poem as being a fantasy, not a reflection of the truth of the speaker’s life. This changes the tone of all the following imagery. This small decision changes the tone of all the beautiful imagery that follows, turning the garden from something beautiful to something sad. The garden itself is introduced as a “Waste Garden” which is a garden that has not been tended to or controlled for a long time. This introduces the idea that the flowers that follow symbolize something encumbered in the speaker’s real life. Already the poem lays the groundwork for this garden being a painful emotional metaphor. This metaphor makes a lot of sense If we believe that this poem is about the speaker’s closeted bisexuality. The speaker’s bisexuality is most beautiful when it is allowed to expand without limitations or conscious management in the same way the waste garden has become beautiful through its supposed disrepair.
The poem also spends multiple lines exploring the plant life within the garden. Many different flowers are named, and each is described as having a different and vibrant color. The idea of variation is brought to the poem through this. The garden through its freedom has much more variety than a more managed garden might have. Some of these flowers are described using the mention of other natural things. The line that follows these descriptions puts the speaker’s feelings into context, the speaker describes the garden as stained “with shades of Nature’s willful moods”. Paired with the imagery of plant life the poem evokes the idea that the love this poem is about is completely natural, not thrust upon the speaker. The speaker seems enamored by the garden, and the reaction he gives notably referred to the garden as strange and sweet, which implies that this garden or others like it are not a common sight but a welcome one.
The poem then takes a turn and changes focus in order to make the metaphors at play more clear. The speaker introduces a new character, a young man who emerges from the garden to greet the speaker. The man from the garden is described with natural symbolism that unites him with the garden itself. Fruit and flowers are just as many features of this man’s body as they are features of the garden. He is also described as “naked” (29) implying that he is (like the garden) unencumbered and free. The idea that the garden is the speaker’s love without shame gains more clarity here, this man is described quite romantically and it appears that what the garden symbolizes he symbolizes as well. The speaker's relationship with this man is explicitly physical and romantic, the young man kisses the speaker upon meeting him, which leaves little doubt of the two’s feelings towards each other. The young man giving the speaker grapes seems significant as the plants of this garden seem to symbolize love, which is allowed him to run free, the man feeding the speaker grapes could allude to the young man offering the speaker an invitation to join that freedom himself. The kiss itself could also be part of this as the man's lips are described earlier as red as wine.
When the man speaks to the speaker in the next line, the poem again alludes to the idea of these feelings being scorned or hidden. The Man from the garden says, “Sweet friend, come I will show thee shadows of the world and images of life.” The use of the word shadows could imply many different meanings. The shadows could reference something the speaker is afraid of or feels is dangerous. Or the shadows of the world could refer to things that the world cannot or will not look at, secrets tucked away from polite society.
Interestingly after this moment, the speaker stops referring to one of the men as himself, separating both men from himself. This could be the speaker trying to separate himself from this romance, putting a wedge between himself and both lovers, becoming an observer of the romance rather than a participant. This could mean any number of things, but it could reference the speaker having limits to what he feels comfortable expressing freely, even within his own fantasy.
The speaker then describes the two men as separate for the rest of the poem, one remaining beautiful naked, and vibrant while the other is described as forlorn and withdrawn even while being serenaded. The speaker is distraught by this, potentially he is upset that even within this fantasy this version of himself is still resistant to his happiness. The man’s response to the speaker’s dismay is also worth exploring, the sad man refers to himself as love and credits his misery to the idea that the other is mistaken for love but is shame. One love disapproving of the other freer love paints an interesting picture of the speaker’s internal conflicts. The speaker’s observed bisexuality could reveal the meaning of the two contrasting loves, one being the feelings of opposite-sex attraction which are embraced by the world, and the other being the shamed and hidden same-sex attraction. This is expanded on in the conclusion of the poem.
The conclusion of the poem is bitter, the line “I am a love that dare not speak its name” (74) is very famous as an interpretation of closeted queer love. But the short line before it is even more important to the meaning of the poem. The naked man in the garden says, "Have thy will," (73) to the other man after he is called shame. This changes the meaning of that entire passage, the idea that the man is living an unfree lie partially because of his own comfort is very plausible because of this line. In the fantasy, the man is shown quite clearly how he feels and what he desires, but another voice tells him that these desires are falsehoods. The man now called shame was depicted throughout this poem as jovial free and affectionate while the opposite-sex love is referred to as a sad presence who prevents joy, this paints an interesting picture of the internal conflict of the speaker. This poem ends with an internal struggle between the love the speaker is supposed to feel and the love the speaker truly feels. It is also worth noting that earlier the love called shame is more than happy walking alongside the other love, but the other love feels disdain for the other’s company.
This poem despite having been written about 200 years ago, has remained relatable, especially to readers who are themselves struggling with life in the closet or coming to terms with their queer identities. The metaphors presented in this poem make these very real and confusing struggles easy for readers to understand whether they have experienced them or not. This is far from an easy feat, many writers today fail to capture these emotions tactfully. This compelling and depressing imagery is an important part of why this poem has remained a staple of the cultural conversation around love poetry and why many LGBTQ+ readers have an emotional connection with this piece.