"Variations on the Word Love"
             The word love can no longer be associated the meaning of intense feeling for another, that it once had. In her poem Margaret Atwood recognizes abuse and overuse of "love", so much so, that it has lost its denotation. Margaret observes that "this is a word we use to plug holes with," meaning it has lost its powerful implication. Indeed, it's so commonly used that if you "Add lace and you can sell it." Love has lost so much substance and has become so everyday that it can even be marketed. "There are whole magazines with not much more than the word love."
             Love has also gone beyond the description of a feeling and can even be used to describe almost any action, such as, "the debaucheries of slugs under damp pieces of cardboard." Even the simplest of organisms, with no capability of having emotion, is now able to experience the most tremendous human sensation.
             The Author, now that the word love is used aimlessly in everyday communications and positions, is trying to find another way to express the word love, and prove it is not insubstantial. Although love is "far too short for us, it has only four letters," and has become nothing but those four letters, nothing can take its place. She tries to find an alternate, a metaphor; "a finger grip on a Cliffside", describes the deep sensation, but does nothing to describe the other extremes of love, it's overwhelming ness, hatred, breathtaking ness etc. The comparison to love being "vacuums between the stars," is the closest, but falls short of the true meaning.
             Margaret Atwood conveys the point that the word love has betrayed its greatness. It has become a Hallmark emotion, going from its zenith of emotions to the center of imbecilic jokes and listless writings. Nevertheless, after concluding the word is meaningless, Atwood uses it because no other wo
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