# Love — Poetry character guide > Love in Poetry by James Joyce. **Role:** supporting **Also known as:** Love **First appearance:** 0030-xxx-love-came-to-us-in-time-gone-by ## Snapshot A pale-mantled wanderer among willows and rivers, playing an instrument while the narrator's romances begin and quietly end. ## Who they are Love appears personified in the early Chamber Music poems, wandering by the river with pale flowers on his mantle and dark leaves in his hair, and later 'making sweet music' in a brown land where two lovers walk hand in hand. The tension is that his music is both the promise and the elegy — the vilanelle and roundelay are heard no more, yet the lovers still kiss before parting. Love matters because he sets the emotional key of the sequence: whatever the narrator feels, it arrives as something Love has already played. ## Relationships ### [Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters/narrator) _romantic_ The narrator is deeply in love with Love, who is an idealized or personified figure of affection, creating a passionate but possibly unrequited dynamic. ### [Beloved](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters/beloved) _psychological_ Beloved and Love are abstract counterparts, with Beloved representing a tangible object of affection and Love an idealized force, creating a tension between reality and ideal. ## In the story ### [Chamber Music](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/chamber-music) Personified as a force or figure that interacts with the narrator and beloved. ### [I: Strings in the Earth and Air](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/i-strings-in-the-earth-and-air) Personified as a wandering figure playing music by the river. ### [At That Hour When All Things Have Repose](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/iii-at-that-hour-when-all-things-have-repose) The entity to whom the harps play, whose way in heaven is aglow. ### [IX: Winds of May, That Dance on the Sea](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/ix-winds-of-may-that-dance-on-the-sea) Personified as unhappy when away from the beloved. ### [X: Bright Cap and Streamers](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/x-bright-cap-and-streamers) Referenced in the invitation 'All you that love' as the motivating force. ### [XI: Bid Adieu, Adieu, Adieu](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xi-bid-adieu-adieu-adieu) Personified as 'Happy Love' who comes to woo the beloved, representing the force of romantic desire. ### [XII: What Counsel Has the Hooded Moon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xii-what-counsel-has-the-hooded-moon) Mentioned as a figure in ancient plenilune, with glory and stars beneath his feet. ### [XIII: Go Seek Her Out All Courteously](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xiii-go-seek-her-out-all-courteously) Personified as being at his noon, heralding the bridal moment. ### [XV: From Dewy Dreams, My Soul, Arise](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xv-from-dewy-dreams-my-soul-arise) Referenced as part of the deep slumber from which the soul must awaken. ### [XVI: O Cool Is the Valley Now](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xvi-o-cool-is-the-valley-now) Referenced as having once gone to the valley, now echoed by the thrushes' call. ### [XVII: Because Your Voice Was at My Side](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xvii-because-your-voice-was-at-my-side) Implied as the force or personification behind the beloved's influence. ### [XVIII: O Sweetheart, Hear You](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xviii-o-sweetheart-hear-you) The personified force that moves softly and woos the sorrowful speaker. ### [XX: In the Dark Pine-Wood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xx-in-the-dark-pine-wood) Personified as the sweet companion in the pine-wood. ### [He Who Hath Glory Lost, nor Hath](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxi-he-who-hath-glory-lost-nor-hath) Personified as the sole companion of the one who has lost glory. ### [XXII: Of That So Sweet Imprisonment](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxii-of-that-so-sweet-imprisonment) The force that makes the interwoven arms tremulous. ### [XXV: Lightly Come or Lightly Go](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxv-lightly-come-or-lightly-go) Mentioned as 'Love and laughter song-confessed' as a comfort when the heart is heaviest. ### [XXVIII: Gentle Lady, Do Not Sing](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxviii-gentle-lady-do-not-sing) Personified as weary and destined for sleep in the grave. ### [XXIX: Dear Heart, Why Will You Use Me So?](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxix-dear-heart-why-will-you-use-me-so) Personified love that resides in the shadowy garden and is soon to be dissolved. ### [XXX: Love Came to Us in Time Gone By](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxx-love-came-to-us-in-time-gone-by) Personified as a fleeting presence that came and went. ### [XXXIII: Now, O Now, in This Brown Land](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxxiii-now-o-now-in-this-brown-land) Personified as the source of sweet music in the past, now ended. ### [Sleep Now, O Sleep Now](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxxiv-sleep-now-o-sleep-now) Implied as the source of the voice crying 'Sleep now' and the kiss that brings peace. ### [XXXVI: I Hear an Army Charging Upon the Land](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxxvi-i-hear-an-army-charging-upon-the-land) Addressed in the final line as 'my love,' who has left the narrator alone. ### [Watching the Needleboats at San Sabba](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/watching-the-needleboats-at-san-sabba) The direction toward which the young hearts cry, though unattainable. ### [She Weeps Over Rahoon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/she-weeps-over-rahoon) Addressed directly, asked to hear the sad, ever-calling voice. ### [Flood](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/flood) Addressed indirectly through the invocation of 'love’s full flood'. ### [A Prayer](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/a-prayer) Personified as a silent, commanding presence that the narrator cannot resist. ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters/love - Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se - All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/poetry_11_se/characters