Sections xxxii and xxxiv at the very end of the poem begin to physically break down and become much shorter and more fragmented. Here, the speaker, through her grief, makes her final declaration about love:
[…]
The marked difference in the style of these final sections with their decaying structure indicates the pain and disjointedness of the speaker. She has finally released the “you” of her past and uses the name “Joannes” in address for the first and only time in the poem. This named address indicates a new kind of intimacy between the lovers, one that can only be achieved in her reticent, more human memories. Though the moon is now “cold,” demonstrating that the cosmic powers of the throes of her love have abandoned her, she tries to find refuge in a warm region of the earth, “the Mediterranean” (Loy 67). Upon falling prey to the romantic trope that love transcends human understanding and ending up broken, she discovers that love must be grounded in a sense of reality and human banality in order for it to be fully experienced and appreciated. The last line: “Love — — — the preeminent literateur” puts the idealized notion of love in equal standing in both art and artifice as the most distinguished literary scholar—at the same time admirable and impressive, but cold and untouchable, as well (68).
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