IN this paper we explore the socio-psychological significance of collections of love song texts from Truk and Ponape, two related cultures in the Caroline Islands. Both corpora were collected by Fischer, the Trukese songs in 1949-50 and the Ponapean in 1950-53. The Trukese songs were collected principally from the natives of the island of Fefan in the eastern half of Truk Lagoon, while the Ponapean songs were collected principally from natives of U District. However, the songs seem to be reasonably representative of Trukese' andPonapean cultures generally. Dialect differences within Truk Lagoon or on the island of Ponape are minor and love songs spread rapidly throughout both ethnic groups. In general the songs were transcribed directly after repeated singing by the informants, mostly young men, and the transcriptions checked by repeatedly singing the songs back to the informants until they were satisfied. Informants were also questioned as to the meaning of unusual linguistic forms. All the songs discussed here were in some sense current at the time of the study, although not necessarily at the height of their popularity. They differ from the older traditional-style love songs in having Western style melodies, in the frequent inclusion of foreign words, and in length, the traditional songs being longer. In spite of these differences there are similarities between the old and new. Certain stereotyped phrases, as well as certain broad themes, appear in both old and new songs. In both societies the traditional-style love songs are no longer sung and are remembered only by the older people. Fischer recorded only a few in the field and because of the inadequate data they are excluded from discussion here. However, we have reason to believe that many of the content differences manifested between Truk and Ponape in the modern song texts could also be found in the traditional-style texts. In both societies love songs are composed and sung primarily by young and middleaged men, and singing love songs is a common part of male courting activity. Girls may sing these songs if they wish but in fact they do it much less, although we have observed Trukese women singing adult love songs to babies. In general, love songs are sung in very soft tones which can be heard only by someone very close to the singer. On Truk, however, both of us have heard pre-pubertal boys singing love songs very loudly as they walked about. Also at men's drinking parties (alcoholic liquor on Truk, kava or alcoholic liquor on Ponape) men will sometimes sing love songs in harmony in louder tones than normally. But the idea of a man singing love songs out loud for the pleasure of a large audience, e.g., at a feast, is embarrassing to the singers. This is in accord with the general reluctance of the Micronesians to display heterosexual affection in public. In both groups there is some aura of illegitimacy about love songs. This has certainly been intensified by missionary teaching but it seems likely that even in pre-contact days there was some question about the propriety of singing love songs. This is because