Ça c’est l’amour

This chapter examines Cole Porter's lifelong quest to capture the essence of love, showing how his lyrics shift between probing metaphors and perfunctory clichés. It highlights his early vision of love as the “lotus of life” in What Love Is and his later turn to the elusive “thing” in songs such as What Is This Thing Called Love? and You've Got That Thing . The chapter contrasts Porter's banal ballads with his most enduring works, stressing his talent for depicting love's effects—rapture, yearning, despair—rather than its essence. It situates these themes in his personal life, emphasizing his marriage to Linda Lee Porter as a constant, alongside affairs that shaped his candid view of love as both passion and transaction. Finally, the chapter underscores the cyclical nature of love in songs like Ça, c'est l'amour and analyzes the “Love Trilogy” to reveal Porter's poetic precision fused with musical invention.