Byatt never gives us the full text of Ask to Embla, just excertpts and comentary but I think we can get a feel for how Ash writes about love as a topic and how he changes from these. "And is love more.
than the kickgalvanic?"(Chapter 15)
he asks and aswers himself with:
"We two remake our world by naming it
Together, knowing what words mean for us ( Chapter 7)
Which suggest that there is more to it. Yet he admits:
"My love is merciless to do you good" (Mummy Possest, Chapter 21)
The poems can be said to sum up both of Ash's major relationships with women. At the end there is disillusioment, the middle is wonderment and the beginning is soaring hope. He expects a great deal of the ladies and himself when it comes to love, perhaps he expects too much.
