An Image of Marriage - Literature review Example

A Marriage Carol Ruben’s poem “A Marriage” presents a third person glimpse at the marriage between a man and his wife as it is seen from the perspective of an outside observer, presumably his secretary or someone who works with him in his office setting. The image of marriage that is presented through this man’s bearing suggests a state of euphoric bliss in which he takes on the role of manly provider, bringing apples in from the fields, and the wife takes on the role of nurturer, happily sewing away her weekends in order to provide nice clean clothes for her happy family. The children are described as “lambs / disarmed, adoring” (10-11), rightfully taking their place as the center of the family’s religion. Into this picturesque marital image is interjected a somewhat bitter and sarcastic slant through the voice of the speaker. From the first stanza forward, Rubens presents an image of marriage that is both perfection and painful through her use of symbol, tone and language choice. Throughout the poem, Rubens illustrates the man’s apparent wedded bliss as well as the speaker’s inner conflict by filling her stanzas with both pleasure and pain laced with a dose of unreality. She opens the poem by indicating “he trails burr-like fragments” (1), suggesting something sharp, unpleasant and clinging. Fragments do not satisfy and emphasize the concept that what is seen in London is not complete. The picture imagined by the speaker is necessarily missing several important elements. Thus, from the very beginning, Rubens intends the reader to understand that this is an interpretation of a relationship brought out through a glancing impression. Nothing is real or absolute but is instead an image developed in the speaker’s mind based upon ‘fragments’ that have been presented to her like burrs, which prick her painfully and refuse to let go. At the same time, however, he is accompanied to the office by a bag of “soft, yellow apples” (3) and “a sense of being loved and laundered” (4). The alliteration used in the latter statement allows the words to flow smoothly, suggesting a blissful existence while the apples, a major symbol for the poem, remain soft and welcoming. The use of apples as a major symbol within the poem brings out another element of the negative within the positive. The man provides apples not only for his wife, their children and the children she presumably teaches (“Later she’ll carry a boxful / of apples to school” 21-22), but also is able to bring a bag of apples to the speaker of the poem, suggesting that he is an ample and generous provider. Its yellow color marks it as different from the run-of-the-mill apple while its soft nature suggests a comfortable life-style. Yet the apple is also the traditional symbol among nearly all Western cultures, for the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, brought to the man by the woman. Viewed from this context, there is a sense of unease because of the reversal of roles and the opposite effect it has. Rather than destroying their peace, the man’s presentation of an apple to his wife is seen in a magical light, glowing with a “Renaissance gilding” (16). However, the apples are also described in terms of their flavor, “sharp as tears” (24), again introducing the concept of something painful, fragmented and cutting. The perceived harmony of this relationship is discussed in terms of domestic tasks and materials. The speaker indicates the marriage is a civilization unto itself with two cities, like the two people comprising it, named Rosewood and Broadloom. Rosewood is a particular type of wood known not only for its beauty and its durability, but also for its unique properties that make it ideal for the creation of fine instruments. In choosing this wood as a symbol of the strength and harmony of the marriage, however, the speaker also interjects the contentious nature of the dark wood, indicating it is difficult to bend with the movement of the seasons and its alternate use as a material for making weapons. By the same token, the symbol of Broadloom is used to indicate a seamless perfection in the weave of their lives together, encompassing a wide range of their interests and abilities to create a unified whole. However, the concept of the wide loom specifically designed for creating large area rugs also suggests a great deal of time, strenuous effort and the frustration of the occasional broken thread. Toward the end of the poem, the speaker compares herself to the piece of dull cloth as the man’s voice becomes the “leaping needle / chasing its tail in a dazzle of wonderment” (31-32). However, she recognizes that she will not be defined by his needle as his wife has been. The most she will be is his child, learning from him in their relationship together. The last lines of the poem, however, “To look at him as a woman / would turn me cold with shame” (35-36), suggest a bitterness caused not by loneliness or a desire for a more intimate relationship, but rather a fierce independence in which such things must be sacrificed. As has been shown, throughout the poem, each idyllic image is laced with a sense of bitterness or control in which the man has the power and the woman learns to live with it. The man is the needle creating the design while the woman is merely the cloth upon which it is worked, the man brings sustenance in the form of the apple while the woman merely accepts it. Taken in this context, the poem can be seen as a feminist stance against the male-centered concept of domestic bliss and a cry for the feminine voice to be heard. Wild Oats Phillip Larkin’s poem “Wild Oats” is essentially about a failed love affair with a girl perhaps because of a fascination with her friend. The poem is structured in much the same way as a short story might be structured, telling a story about a young man and his long-term relationship with a girl whose friend remains the focus of his memory. His language is laced with the irony and bitterness of a man whose hopes failed, yet is also full of humor and self-awareness as he finally comes to grips with the reality of why his marriage might have ended in such a way. An examination into the language of the poem is particularly useful in understanding the deeper contexts. The first stanza of the poem sets up the story as the opposite of what the title would seem to suggest. ‘Wild oats’ is the end of a common phrase used to refer to the tendency for a young man to be a bit promiscuous with women before he finally settles down to a wife. The poem establishes that the speaker of the poem is no longer young, now telling of something that occurred “about twenty years ago” (1) and this first stanza illustrates how he might have been better off had he determined to sow his wild oats before pursuing marriage. This is demonstrated in the way in which he focuses in with admiration upon the “bosomy English rose” (3) whose face could have “sparked / the whole shooting match off” (5-6). Larkin’s decision to end the fifth line with the word ‘sparked’, utilizing enjambment to complete the thought, helps to emphasize the concept that had it not been for the beauty of the English rose, he never would have considered the idea of his relationship with the friend. In other words, the English rose inspired him to love, but he opted for the wrong interest. This is demonstrated in the second stanza, as he details the arduous process of his relationship with the “friend in specs I could talk to” (4). By providing a solid number for the volume of letters he wrote to her in a specific period of time, Larkin indicates to the reader that he sent more than one letter per week in attempting to win this friend over to him and that he provided her with a “ten guinea right” (11), which had to have been an engagement ring, that he got back in the end, an ominous sign. This suggestion that the relationship didn’t get far is reinforced by the admission that although they met “at numerous Cathedral cities”, they remained “unknown to the clergy” (13-14). A mention of the bosomy rose indicates not only that she remains on his mind, but also that she sees through his attempts at redirection. “She was trying / Both times (so I thought) not to laugh” (15-16). This suggests that while he may have been fooling himself that he wanted to be with the more sensible choice, the girl he could talk to, he truly longed after the other girl, the bosomy rose, enough to make it obvious to everyone else. This naturally sets up the third stanza, in which the poet tells his readers that he and his girlfriend, the one in specs, broke up finally on their sixth try. He says the final separation was done on the agreement that he was “too selfish, withdrawn / And easily bored to love” (19-20). He mixes in a bit of philosophical humor when he says it was “useful to get this learnt” (21) with the full measure of sarcasm evident in the missing statement regarding what was wrong with her. This stanza also serves to indicate his lack of passion in the affair despite his abundance of letters and attentions. His true interest is revealed in this stanza’s concluding consideration of the bosomy rose. It is noted that no consideration is ever given as to what the girlfriend might have thought at any time, at least not placed in her voice or characterizations. All the reader is allowed to know about her is that she wears spectacles and is someone he can talk to. However, he seems to still be bothered about thoughts of whether the bosomy rose was laughing at him during the second time they met. The superiority of the bosomy rose in his thoughts is finally driven home when it is revealed, at the end of the poem, that he has continued to keep two photos of the bosomy girl in his wallet during the entire courtship period. Through his reflective tone of voice, his liberal use of enjambment to bring out particular words and his easy, conversational use of language, Larkin is able to present an intimate look into self-reflection and realization. By dividing the major periods of his affair with the girl in specs into three, eight line stanzas, he is able to convey a sense of passing time while his continued reference to the bosomy rose illustrates her continued presence in his mind. The absence of poetic ‘tricks’ such as a rhyme scheme, alliteration or simile and metaphor give the impression of a frank heart to heart confession with sad overtones of self-delusion. Only as one reaches the end of the poem, with the revelation that the man has continued to carry photographs of the other woman in his wallet, is the true humor of the piece revealed, and the reader who feels sympathy for the man can’t avoid a sharp burst of laughter at the resulting joke. may i feel said he E.E. Cummings made it a regular feature of his poetry to never use punctuation marks or capitals in his work. He did this primarily as a means of struggling against the modern mass society and to allow some fun and play to enter into his work. The punctuation he did use was not placed as much because of the socially accepted concepts of the symbols and signs, but instead to convey an emotional interaction with the words as they appeared on paper. Despite this created meaning, his poetry remains packed with accessible concepts and widely available for interpretation. A benefit of Cumming’s style was that he provided his readers with a greater sense of the immediacy of his subjects. In his poem generally referred to as “may i feel said he” (the first line of the untitled poem), Cummings presents what appears to be the real-time seduction of a woman by a married man conveyed through little more than brief two or three word sentences between the two individuals. The structure of the poem seems to be relatively simple upon first glance. The poem is divided into eight quatrains with not more than five words per line generally. This ensures that the reader must read through it quickly. Pauses and breaks are available, but the overall effect of the poem is a breathless dash from beginning to end. A pattern is developed throughout the poem by the eight sets of parentheses that he includes in the poem, one per stanza, and the revelations these provide as to the actions being carried out. One gets the sense of spoken and unspoken communication occurring between the two characters of the poem, but the mixing of the two impressions, which is enclosed in parentheses and which are not, begins to suggest a mixing of the two people as they begin to communicate on much deeper levels. At the same time, the parentheses serve to provide a visual representation of an embrace, beginning and ending and beginning again, with different lengths, sometimes carrying over from one stanza to another and finally ending completely enclosed with the words “you are mine said she” (32) as the literal afterglow following climax. As one progresses through the poem, the movement of the rhyme scheme and the slight changes that are found from quatrain to quatrain serve to further build the suspense and excitement, mimicking the emotions of the moment of the poem. The poem moves through progressively more active actions from one quatrain to another. In its progression, the verbs are placed to build tension as they are placed almost opposite each other in many cases, such as go and stay seen in the third and fourth quatrains followed by move in the fifth. The constant repetition of the long ‘e’ sound in ‘he’ and ‘she’, when read aloud, begins to take on the cadence of heavy breathing throughout the poem. However, it is noted that there are more relaxed sounds, such as ‘touch’, ‘much’, ‘far’ and ‘are’ toward the beginning of the poem during the seduction and more primitive sounds, ‘oh no’, ‘go slow’ as the tension builds. Finally, Cummings makes a play on his own name in the poem just as the climax is reached, placing himself literally in the action with the man’s question ‘cccome?’ and the woman’s response ‘ummm’. What emerges through this play with words is the story of an encounter between a man and a woman as he quickly talks her into making love with him and the verbal dialogue that might accompany such an event. The poem is structured in such a way as to present ‘his’ question and ‘her’ response, interjected by a persuasive parenthetical remark by ‘him’ and a concessional remark by ‘her.’ This sets up a give and take pattern that presents him, then her, then him, then her again. This also serves to build up the emotional elements of the poem and establishes a heady partnership between the two people. The secretive nature of this relationship is revealed as the woman asks about his wife, yet the passion they share is undeniable through the linguistic climax built into the poem. Thus, although Cummings makes his own use of punctuation with little or no concession to convention, he is able to present a poem that speaks more eloquently about a particular moment in time than many are able to express using more graphic language. His clever use of words to create appropriate sounds to match the action being described serves to excite the reader while the by-play of the characters involved helps to make his meaning clear. That this storyline also helps to contribute toward the emotional response signifies the care taken in the writing of the poem and Cumming’s emphasis on transcending the common barriers of language as an activity rather than an experience. Read More