Poems - Love and Relationships
> Romantic poet
> Thought to be about his affair with Lady Webster – doesn’t mention her name
> Broke off affair to save her reputation but she had another affair with the Duke of Wellington later
> Written in jealousy and hurt
> Theme of betrayal and deceit
> Loss, secrecy and heartbreak
*Rhyme scheme at beginning follows that of a sonnet* (ABAB CDCD…)
Sonnet is a love poem but it falls out of this scheme at…
‘Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are broken’
> Language mirroring rhyme suggests that the perfect sonnet love had disappeared for the writer after learning of the betrayal
Uses ‘cold’ to describe both physical and metaphorically emotionally coldness of his lover
*Sensory description words* (words that describe senses) e.
g. ‘cold’, ‘shudder’ – Suggesting the relationship was about sensory pleasure
CONTRARY:
‘Half broken-hearted’ – only one of them was broken hearted? Both partially broken-hearted?
*Change in tense* – past to present
> Suggests the writers past love is now no longer
*Ironic or metaphor?* – *’They vows are all broken’*
‘Vows’ of marriage were broken by their affair
Was instead the relationship sacred; the ‘vows’ are a metaphor for this?
‘*A knell in mine ear’* – ‘knell’ is the sound of a funeral bell
> Suggests the writers love for her is dead
*’Thou’ and ‘Thee’* – fell out of usage in the 1600
> Suggests the love is timeless
> Also found in marriage vows; sacred?
*Repetition of ‘silence and tears’ at ending*
> Suggests the cyclical nature of his feelings; he cannot get over this love
e.g. ‘*When* we two *part*ed
In *sil*ence and *tears*’
Lines 5 & 7 break the rules – contain 3 stressed syllables
‘*Pale* grew thy *cheek* and *cold*,
…*Tru*ly that *hour* fore*told*
> Broken structure here emphasizes the shock and brokenness poet felt as he was rejected
1) Past (‘When we two parted’)
2) Present (‘They name thee before me’)
3) Future (‘If I should meet thee’)
> Suggests the pain will last forever, painting him as the victim
*Grammatical structure* – poetic inversion
e.g. ‘In silence I grieve’
> Meant to be I grieve in silence
> This order of words put a greater emphasis of the silence – a poet losing their ability to communicate suggests a sign of distress
> Romantic poet
> Shelley left his pregnant wive
> Ran off with Mary Shelley
> Wrote in favor of atheism
> Longing
> Nature
> Water, fluidity, cycles
– OR –
*Dramatic monologue* – a single person talking. The poet is taking on a character (speaker and poet not the same thing)
> Surface of sacred love
> However, contextually it contradicts. Perhaps he is using it in a satirical way; only using every argument to persuade his lover to sleep with him
*Widening scope of natural imagery* – e.g. fountains mingle with the river’ to ‘kiss high Heaven’, ‘moonbeam’
> Suggests his desperation growing
*Verb usage* – e.g. ‘mix’, ‘mingle’ to ‘clasps’, ‘kiss’
> Suggests growing frustration and urgency
*Masculine and feminine rhyme* –
Masculine rhyme – ‘ri*ver*, ‘e*ver*’
Feminine rhyme – ‘*ocean*’, ’em*otion*’
> The masc and fem rhymes mingle together to reflect the mingling together of the two
*Personification* – e.g. ‘fountains mingle’, ‘mountains kiss’
> Used to back up the speakers argument
> Forces parallel of what is happening in nature with what is happening in the relationship with the man and the women
> Overuse suggests despiration
*Formal argument* –
1) 5 clear statements that are made in each stanza
2) Then 2 lines for a rhetorical question
> This is more persuasive to the women as it uses facts to appear accurate which makes your main point/question feel accurate
*Semicolons* – used to link sentences of the same topic
> Suggests that the mingling of nature and the mingling of the two are the same thing
> It is natural for the two to mingle
*One stanza is an extended sentence*
> Reflects flowing of nature
> Desperation links
Porphyria’s lover
> Desperation links
> Famous Victorian poet (important for attitudes towards women and class)
> As a poet, focuses on morbid, twisted, psychological states
> Porphyria would be seen as a ‘fallen’ women as she flattens her sexuality
> Changed from ‘Porphyria’ to ‘Porphyria’s Lover’ later on (significant as expresses it illicit nature – reason behind the murder?)
> Poem always printed with another poem about a psychopath – suggest nature
> Passivity (In the first half, Porphyria’s lover is passive. In the second half, Porphyria’s passive during the murder)
> S
*Written in a first person narrative*
> creates sense of the events being a chain
> Suggests that events are almost as if they are inevitable once Porphyria’s arrives
*Pathetic fallacy* – Initially it seems as if this reflects only the mood of the narrator, but, the cottage transforms once Porphyria arrives (e.g. ‘she shut the cold out’, ‘the cheerless grate blazed up’)
> ‘shut the cold out’ is both literal and metaphorical – it is the storm and his unhappiness that she shuts out
*Description of Porphyria at the beginning and end*
*Beginning* – ‘pale’, ‘smooth white shoulder bare’
> Makes her seem more dead
*End* – her cheek ‘blushed bright’ on her ‘smiling rosy little head’
> Makes her seem more alive and contradicts what we might expect
> Adds to the rather sinister cheerfulness of the end of the poem
*’Brushed bright beneath my burning kiss’*
> He believes her red face (caused by her being strangled) is actually a blush from his passionate kiss – shows he is deranged
> This paradox shows the narrator’s love is passionate but also distructive
*’And yet God has not said a word!’*
CONNOTATIONS:
> Shows his insanity, he has delusions of grandeur because God should speak to him
> He has done is not a sin, because God has not objected.
*’That moment she was mine, mine’*
> Emphasises why he would want to keep her in that perfect instant
Connotations of:
> Regular, calm heartbeat
> the asymmetrical rhyme scheme reflects the unbalanced character of the narrator
*One long stanza*
*Mirrored structure to the events in the poem*
1st half – Porphyria arranges the narrator’s physical form, putting his “arm about her waist”
2nd half – After he has killed her, he ‘propped her head up as before’
> This might reflect the paradox, that he loves her but he kills her
> Physical (but potentially destructive) love
*Sonnet 29*
> Both have ideas that love cannot be controlled
> Both use violent language (e.g. ‘straggling’, ‘shattered’) – love can be fatal
> Physical longing in both
> Victorian Poet
> Suffered from illness for most of her life
> Addicted to pain killers
> Famous in her time as well
> Married Robert Browning
> Controlling father who refused to let her married; her and Robert Browning had to keep their relationships a secret
> Intensity – forceful language
> Celebration – takes pleasure in their love
CONNOTATIONS
> 14 lines
> In quatrains (3 verses of 4 lines and a rhyming couplet at the end where the volta is )
> Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line, alternating stress)
> Rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD…GG)
*Italian sonnet (Sonnet 29)*
> 14 lines
> First 8 lines (octave) poses a problem (her thoughts of him overwelming her)
> Volta (line 9) is a sharp turn which brings about the move to the resolution
> Last 5 lines (sestet) solves the problem
> Iambic pentameter (10 syllables per line, alternating stress)
> ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme
*Why Italian Sonnet?*
> English sonnet were overtly sexual; Browning may have related more to Italian as she could have related more to a consuming loving that was not physical yet
> Sibilant sounds reflect the rusting of a tree
> Extended metaphor shows how her thoughts are unrestrained and growing like vines
*Violent verbs* – e.g. ‘my thoughts do twine […] about a tree’
> The ‘tree’ is an extended metaphor for her lover.
> ‘Twine’ has connotations of wrapping around and straggling
> The two together suggests that her ‘thoughts’ and not being able to be together physically is killing them
The stress is on *out broad leaves*, going against Iambic pentameter
> Could be suggesting the overwhelming love is causing her to lose control, of herself and the poetic form
> Small, subtle changes of the structure implies that love can break the rules but doesn’t always end in punishment (CONTEXT LINK OF DISOBEYING HER FATHER)
*Volta – ‘Rather, instantly /Renew they presence’*
Straddles 2 lines instead of on line 9
> Sonnet is not perfect just as her love for Robert is not perfect until the two are together
*’Breath within thy shadow a new air’*
> ‘New air’ suggests that she is refreshed/ reborn now that she has been with him physically
> She is ‘within thy [his] shadow’ because he is like the sun – superior and giver of all life
> Both have ideas that love cannot be controlled
> Both use violent language (e.g. ‘straggling’, ‘shattered’) – love can be fatal
> Physical longing in both
> Famous for the pessimistic tone in his writing
> Both a novelist and a poet
> Faced many disappointments in his personal relationships (and would go on to face even more
after Neutral Tones was written and published)
> Written in 1867 but not published until over twenty years later in the collection Wessex Poems (lends an even greater degree of distance to the incident that is recalled but also adds importance to the theme of memory)
> Loss of Love
> Suffering/lifelessness
> Emphasis neutral theme
‘A pond’
> Water is often used by poets to represent life – here it is a small, still body of water with no movement, emphasizing how the relationship is not going anywhere
‘The Sun’
> Usually associated with life and joy – here the sun is white and seemingly deprived of its power to warm and nurture
‘A few leaves’
> These are decaying – just like the relationship
> Gray, as though the color has drained from them. > The leaves (presumably from the same tree) in the last stanza are ‘grayish’, almost as if the memory is stronger than the reality from where the speaker currently stands.
‘An ash’
> By leaving out the word ‘tree’ the reader is reminded of the remains of a fire that has long since burned out, symbolizing the death of the relationship.
*Neutral language*
> No strong feeling portrayed
> No strong color (e.g. ‘grey’, ‘sun was white’)
*Oxymoron* – ‘smile on your mouth was the deadliest thing’
> Smile shouldn’t be ‘dead’, it emphasizes her complete lack of feeling towards him
> Its simplicity supports the idea of a neutral telling of the tale
*Rhythmic pattern is not consistent*
> Maybe echoes the uncomfortable feeling which existed between the two people involved and in the eventual breakdown of their relationship
> Disruption suggest he is not as ‘neutral’ about the breakup as he is protraying
*Circular structure* (returns to beginning)
> Suggests the speaker is revisits the memory as he has not come to terms with what has happened
> Uses imagery of nature to reflect troubled relationship
*When we two parted*
> Same theme of not being able to move on
> Born in Truro, Cornwall in 1957 and grew up in Bristol.
> Worked in Yorkshire for a time and has lived in London.
> Details in the poem which suggest it may draw on personal experience, but we can’t assume this to be the case.
> Seasons/nature
> News
*Most of the lines have five beats or stresses, though not in a strict metrical pattern; no use of end rhyme*
*Enjambment* – between some lines and between stanzas one and two, and four and five.
> Contributes to the sense of normal speech patterns
> Links to the idea that the poem is about two ordinary, separate but connected lives
> Uses everyday language to convey the sense of ordinary lives
> Helps us connect with the emotions in the poem
> ‘Feeding words onto a blank screen’ – creates contrast between ‘feeding words’ and him feeding people with potatoes. Makes her actions seem artificial compared to his natural actions
*’Across the icy miles’*
> Communication brings them together, despite the ‘miles’ between them
> ‘Icy’ suggests dislike of the distance
*Rhetorical question* – ‘Is your life more real because you dig and sow?’
> The reader may feel that the speaker thinks the man’s life is better than her own
*Alliteration* – ‘my heartful of headlines’
> Draws attention to the phrase, which may suggest the sorrow she feels being aware of many news reports
> Impact of distance on relationships
*Climbing My Grandfather*
> Both cover themes of relationships, memories and strong connections between people
> Both structured using mostly unrhymed lines, enjambment and everyday speech patterns
> Conversational tone and use everyday language
> Wrote this poem during the 19th century
> Based her story in a farming community
> Marriages often organised according to convenience, rather than love.
> Mental illness affected the writer and her family, and could be considered a source of inspiration for the depiction of the bride in the poem
> Mental illness
> Loneliness and tragedy
> Male dominance
> Create the personality of the farmer-narrator in his rural environment
> Suggested lack of formal education
*’More’s to do/At harvest-time than bide and woo’*
> Admits that he did not take time to find a bride
> Clearly the story of a couple living in a working community where the demands of farming life came above all other considerations
*Sematic field of wild animals* – e.g. ‘flying like a hare’, ‘like a mouse’, ‘Shy as a leveret’
> Confirms the rural setting of the poem
> Suggests the attitude of the farmer to his wife, as if she needs taming.
> When she runs away she is described as “flying like a hare/…/All in a shiver and a scare”, sounds as if the farmer and others are hunting her, making her fearful
*Use of sibilance to produce a sense of the farmer’s whispered appreciation*
> In line 34 the writer makes use of caesura (a break in the centre of a line) to underline the problem that although the farmer admires his wife, she doesn’t offer him the affection he desires.
> The rhetorical question “Sweet…/To her wild self. But what to me?” at the end of the stanza is strongly suggestive of his unhappiness.
*Use of punctuation to create emphasis*
> End of the first stanza has two commas in the line, slowing the pace and halting the rhythm to reflect the disturbance caused by the wife’s escape
> The comma and full stop in “turned the key upon her, fast” contains the word ‘fast’ just as she is securely contained
*Images of the natural world*
> Reflects rural setting
> Represents a farmer’s view of the world
> Some of the imagery is symbolic (e.g. the magpie feather lying on the ‘black earth spread white with rime’ (frost), is a small detail suggesting a world of big contrasts: man versus woman, chastity versus married sexual union, animal versus human)
> Opens with a reference to “Three Summers since” and towards the end “Christmas-time” is mentioned
*Rhyme*
> Strong use of rhyme.
> Rhyme scheme of the first stanza, for example, is a-b-b-a-c-d-c-d-d
*Short stanza’s near the end* – increases the pace
> Suggests his passion is growing
> Mimics her running away from him
> Physical desire of the speaker is similar
*Love’s Philosophy*
> Physical desire of the speaker is similar
*Neutral Tone*
> Emotional distance similar
*Interpretations:*
> Speaker is thinking back to childhood and used to view climbing his grandfather as a mountain
> As an adult, climbing a mountain reminds the speaker of their grandfather
> Worked on a farm when he was young, and studied the environment at college
> Poems follow a theme of family relationships
> Committed suicide at 42 in 2001
*Use of enjambment throughout*
> Creates a sense of movement between actions
*No use of stanzas*
> presents poem as one piece – connotations of single mountain
> creates gentle, conversational tone to suggest the poet is wandering from memory to memory
> His grandfather is an imposing figure in his memory
> He views his grandfather as strong and monumental in his life
> Climbing could imply him getting closer to his grandfather
*Oxymoron of ‘warm ice’*
> Paradox implying the feeling to reliving the memory
> Suggests he feels far from his grandfather but wishes to be closer to him
> His poems often explore the experience of immigrants
> Grew up in 1980’s during a period of widespread racism in mainstream media
> Poems often challenge representations of Indians
*Mixture of stanzas focusing individually on work or love*
> Suggests a mixture of lifestyles
> Implies he can’t handle both at the same time
*Almost every stanza ends with a dash*
> Suggests a continuity in life
*Mixture of rhyme patterns*
> Implies a disorder in his life
> Unbalance of work and love
> General end rhyme to create swing
> Creates alliterative, rhythmic effect
> Forces the reader to understand the accent more, contrary to the mocking of it in society
*Metaphor of cat and mouse* – ‘wid di mouse’, ‘netting two cat’, ‘di cheese’
> ‘Cat’ – old fashioned slang for a man – double play on words
> Confusion between who is the cat and who is the mouse describes the absence of dominance in the relationship
*Personification* – ‘whispering stairs’
> Creates a romantic aura with connotations of secrecy
> Implies that the stairs tempt him to return to his wife
> Poetry was nature/personal experience as main theme
> Brought up by this father as his mother died very early in his life
*ABACA Rhyme scheme throughout*
> Allows melancholic tone – as if feelings are uncomplicated but raw
> Simple, repetitive structure suggests a constant of emotions
*Use of personal pronoun ‘you’*
> Gives the poem a very intimate and moving feeling
*Regular slow pace*
> Reflects the throughout process of a parent
> Implies that the separation wasn’t immediate – there was anticipation
> Speaker is looking back – it’s something that has stayed in their mind
*Use of enjambment*
> Emphasizes his constant of passion – a sense of moving on, ‘walking away’
> Implies the ease and natural relationship
> ‘Parent seed’ and ‘winged seed’ implies the boy has a new center of gravity of school rather than the parents
*Use of religious language*
> Implies a sense of worship towards the child
> Suggests that God has let his son go
> Places are significant in his poem as a way of recording events
> His work is characteristic by its simplicity – he uses similar forms to children poems but often has deeper meaning
> His father died when he was only fifteen
*Constant of half-rhyme – ‘sack’ and ‘rock’, ‘dress’ and ‘grass’*
> Suggests a distance from his parents
> Links to the death of his father – he feels incomplete
*Broken up 6th stanza*
> Allows for a pause to separate the stanza and penultimate line
> Forces the reader to think about meaning as emphasis is drawn here
*Use of enjambment throughout*
> Implies a sense of movement – on a journey
> Reads as a singular, fluid memory
> Suggest a sense of paradise and comfortibility
> Links the parent’s death and their afterlife
*Focus on specific details* – ‘Genuine Irish Tweed’, ‘HP sauce bottle’
> Suggests the memory is traumatic as he remembers its so well
> Focus details on his mother suggest he has clearer memory of her like this
> Major poet of 20th century – won a Noble prize
> Eldest son of a large farming family in Ireland
> By becoming a poet he feels guilty that he didn’t carry on his fathers work
*ABAB rhyme scheme*
> Implies monotonous nature of farm work
> Suggets fluidity of movement and continuity as it flows throughout
> Implies constant balance in their relationship
*Half rhyme* – ‘sock and ‘pluck’
> Suggests contrast between father and son
> Implies most of his life he has followed his father and only in the last phrase has this changed
> Implies the journey physically and mentally that he as gone on
> Suggests a contrast of fluidity – there are no stops in the relationships
*Use of verbs* – ‘stumbling’, ‘tripping’
> represents the switch in the follower
> Symbolic of the generation gap – the father can keep up
> Tension between his father loosing his physicality and ability to farm
> Poems address issues such as oppression, gender and violence
> Scottish poet and playwright
> Appointed British’s Poet Laureate in 2009
*Lack of rhyme or metre*
> Implies a collage of memories looking at the photographs
> Reminder of the regularity of time passing – use of natural, unforced language
*Use of both past and present tenses*
> Implies a retrospective viewpoint – mixture of memory and statements
*Use of enjambment throughout*
> Implies the narrative voice – retelling a story
> Suggests that the speaker is talking in direct with their thoughts
> Parrellel of two seperate lives to emphasize the change in time
> Irony of short-lived glamour in contrast to the hard reality of motherhood
*Use of personal pronoun ‘you’*
> Implies intimacy of the realationship as it’s direct
> Suggests a comfortability in the memory – she wishes to stay with her mother
> Poems often focus on landscape and the people who live in them
> Often explores history, idenity and difficulties people face in the simplicity of life
> Welsh poet and grew up in the countryside of south Wales
*Last stanza has two lines rather than three*
> Puts emphasis on the final stanza
> Suggests the couple are now a reconciled pair to emphasize the connection of two people
*Use of emjambment*
> Suggests tht their love is continuous and never ending
*No rhyme throughout*
> Langugae is more balanced and natural – it isn’t forced
> Suggest that their love is simple and raw
> Reflects the turbulence of the relationship
*Use of doubles in language link to two people*
*Use of personal pronoun ‘you’*
> Gives a sense of intimacy as it’s direct
*Sibilance of ‘slow-stepping’ and ‘shingle and sand’*
> Shows tendernace of the relationship – use of gentle sounds
Poems - Love and Relationships. (2018, Jan 16). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-poems-love-and-relationships/
