The poem ‘Do not ask of Me, My Love’ is an appeal to his ‘beloved’. Here the beloved is a metaphor for his ‘muse’, or country of his birth. The poet appeals to bis beloved not to demand the same kind of attention that he had once for her because, he has now come to realize that there are other agonies, other than ‘love’, which demand his attention. These other agonies refer to the suffering of the people that he witnessed during the two world wars and during the freedom struggle of his motherland. His pain and anguish at seeing slavery, slave trade, savagery and victimization of the poor, and prostitution for survival, find expression in this poem.
Though the ‘love’ of his beloved compels his attention, he cannot turn a blind eye to the misery and suffering of humanity around him. He does not say that he can no longer love his beloved, but he says he cannot be totally devoted to the love of his countrymen only.
