Having a Coke with You Summary & Analysis
by Frank O'Hara

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Frank O'Hara wrote "Having a Coke with You" in 1960 and later collected it in his 1965 volume Love Poems (Tentative Title). One of O'Hara's most famous love poems, it's addressed to an unnamed "you" (based on the dancer Vincent Warren) at the start of an exciting relationship. The speaker declares that doing simple things with his lover—such as sharing a Coke while wandering New York City—"is even more fun" than traveling to exotic locales and more rewarding than the most beautiful works of art. Though the speaker is an art connoisseur, he celebrates the joyful immediacy of life over the comparative "still[ness]" and "solemn[ity]" of art, as well as the way love can transform the everyday into the extraordinary.

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