Narrator – After The Lunch
The narrator of the poem “After The Lunch” is walking across Waterloo Bridge in London, after a pleasant lunch date with an unnamed person.
There is not much personal information known about the narrator as they walk across the bridge, desperately trying to convince themselves that they have not fallen in love. This implies that the narrator has either been hurt by a former love and is thus scared to get hurt again or that a potential relationship might be more complicated.
While the title of the poem and the first line make it clear that both characters had lunch together, it might have simply been a platonic lunch and not a romantic one and the person might be unavailable for a relationship of which the narrator is aware.
Narrator – The Orange
The narrator of the poem “The Orange” is predominantly characterized by their delight in everyday moments.
At the beginning of the poem, the narrator revels in having bought an unusually big orange for lunch (likely during lunch break at work) and how this has brightened their entire day. This overly optimistic point of view however, seems to be fairly new as the narrator exclaims that “Just lately” (l. 7) trivial things have had a positive impact on their mood.
The narrator’s life appears to mostly consist of ordinary tasks. They don’t specify what they do for work, nor do they usually seem to take pleasure in their work (as they remark that today they unusually did).
It is never explicitly said what has changed in the narrator’s life to make them see everything in a positive light, but in the last line, the narrator mentions an unspecified “you”, that they love. This could imply that the narrator is freshly in love.
Narrator – The New Regime
The narrator of the poem “The New Regime” is part of a couple that shares a not so healthy lifestyle.
They are sitting in a restaurant, discussing about the possibility to make changes to their behavior. The narrator, though ostensibly in favor of the changes, quickly backpedals, which shows that they have no serious intentions to improve.
The couple seems to drink a lot of alcohol, eat a lot and avoid doing any form of sport. While they do not fight, the narrator implies that their relationship is mainly based on shallow conversations, alcohol and not being alone for too long or often.
In line 12, the narrator states that the new lifestyle will help make them “successful, rich and thin”, which implies that the narrator is currently neither (in their point of view).
