Central Theme of Love - Literature review Example

TOPIC: POEM ANALYSIS In the poems “Rondeau after a Transatlantic” by Marilyn Hacker and “Books”by Elizabeth Barrett Browning have a central theme of love which is evident through the use of imagery and language in the poems, which in a good way work together in an attempt to create both nostalgic and depressing elements of lost love together with good feelings of found love as in the poems: ‘Books’ and ‘Rondeau after a transatlantic’ respectively. In this poems we shall focus on various stylistic devices like; alliteration, rhyme through comparison and how through them the authors have been able to accomplish their goals through the various style. Equally, the focus will be on the tone and audience and attitudes in the poems. The use of literary devices which are ways to make poetry work clearer and more descriptive, making poetry better. Techniques and literary devices have been immensely used in both poems, for instance alliteration that is the repetition of initial consonant sounds at the beginning of words placed near each other, usually on same or adjacent lines. Alliteration has been reckoned in both poems through the use of words like; big brown eyes and a foolish head, times they rinsed, wrong wrists to red and so on, with the first letters of big brown, times they and wrong wrists red in the poem Books. In ‘Rondeau’ on the other hand, the sound letters ‘s’ and ‘t’ in the words; summer, smoke, sound and crisp, cold are alliterated respectively. The use of alliteration is important in the sense that it accentuates the beauty of language in these poems and unites words through a kind of representation thus providing the poems with some rhythm. Rhyme is the pattern at the end of each line words and can either occur in pairs like; a a, b b, or through a skip to skip pattern such as; a b, a b. It comes in two ways; as internal rhyme and end rhyme, though end rhyme is the most common in these poems. The use of rhyme has been able to contribute a lot to the musicality of the poem and creation of a rhythm in the poems. The poem ‘Books’ however does not have instances of rhyme in it, and this does not make it lose its beauty though as it still has some other literary devices that make it stand. Instances of rhyme in the poem, ‘Rondeau after a transatlantic’ is in words such as tonight and light in the first and second lines of the poem, appearing as end rhyme, also comes and thrums on the third and fourth lines of the poem. Our first difference therefore lies on the rhythm of the two poems, where it lacks in the poem ‘Books’, and is common in the other poem, assuming the pattern; a a , b b. The rhyme in the poem makes it musical and pleasing when read or listened to its recitation, being that it plays a major role in the rhythm of the poem. Another similarity is in the use of similes, which are figures of speech in which one thing is compared to another by use of the words; like and as. This comes out clearly in the two poems in the sentences; you lather me like summer and it thrums like toothache in the poem, ‘Rondeau’ after a transatlantic and the other, nibbling here and there like some small nimble mouse between ribs as in the poem named ‘Books’. It helps in creating a real image and insight of what is being put under comparison to make us be in line with the emotions of the poet and understand what they are going through. Like in ‘Rondeau’, we realize the feelings of the woman towards the lover, the affection and appreciation they have towards each other’s actions while in books, an image of the writers determined search for love is felt as a result of the comparison. Word order on the other hand creates the difference here between these two poems. This is the syntactic order of constituents of a language and is evident in the poem ‘Rondeau’ after a transatlantic as in the sentence; insistent through the walls comes the downstairs neighbor’s double bass that can otherwise in the normal way be re-written as, the downstairs neighbor’s double bass comes insistent through the walls. This kind of word order is otherwise different when it comes to the poem, ‘book’ as words in the poem have been written normally with no word inversions or sophisticated word order. This sophistication is what is brought about when the word order is reversed as in the poem ‘Rondeau’ Repetition is also a style that has been able to come out in both poems successfully. This is through various instances of repeating some words in the poem. In ‘books’ for example, the word piled up and books have been used more than once to create an emphasis on the memories and tough experiences that the writer had to through because of love, and this enables us to have a feel of what the writer is going through in their lives as well as the degree of this effect on them. Repetition is entirely used to create emphasis in the poem. On the other hand, the poem ‘rondeau’ has occasionally made a repeat of the word love that makes us realize how much in love the writer is and the emphasis of their love on the partner. This is actually very vivid as we can see that the partner is always being referred to as love, which is a clear indicator of the degree of love in this particular union. Repetition is therefore a similar thing in these two poems The author has been able to accomplish their goal through the use of different literary styles that have contributed to the flow, rhythm and beauty of the poems. This includes; the use of similes, repetition, among others. The message has been able to reach the audience through the use of these styles as they create a clear picture of the feelings of the writer and enable us relate with those feelings. Without these styles, the delivering of the message to the audience would have been a difficult thing to go by. The audiences in these two poems are similar as the target audience is every being, because whatever the poems talk about are the things that affect everybody and at some point we all will have to go through it. The author in the poem ‘books’ is nostalgic of the lost love and is still not giving up yet and keeps persisting to get what they want. On the other hand, the other poem is apparently about a newly found love and the love experiences are still so sweet that the author wants to be with the lover all the time. We even see them remembering how good it was talking to the partner that night and still wishes to have lied in the partners arms that night. The two poems have got different attitudes in them when it comes to love. In the poem ‘books’ for instance the tone of the poem is optimistic. We see the writer trying to remember what they went through in a past love and trying to seek ways of improving on what is now in the past. No hope is lost though as the thoughts of getting what is better for them still persist. On the other hand, this other poem has got a jovial and reflective tone towards love. This is evident through the happiness that we see in the author and the feelings of experiencing sweet love that just started growing. The author keeps remembering about their experiences together after the brief departure of their partner, thereby making the author happy and wanting their partner closer the more. The attitudes in the two poems therefore differ as the author’s perspective on love is quite different, though encouraging at some point. The experiences they are undergoing are also quite different with one having much fun with a lot of happiness and the other trying to deal with the situation of trying to make things better as far as love is concerned. In conclusion, the analysis of the two poems, both with the theme of love has proved the poems to have some things in common and some different from each other. This is with reference to the styles used in the poems which in one way or another differ, also the tone or attitudes and their audiences. It is through the analysis that we get to experience the two sides of love; one being the intense love feeling coupled with unending happiness, for the poem ‘Rondeau after a transatlantic’ and the ‘Books’ with bitter-sweet feelings of what love has to offer. We equally find out the extent to which the authors have been able to succeed in the accomplishment of their goals. The two poems therefore have some close relationship with one another that has been able to be brought about through the content of the poems, in terms of literary devices and techniques, the theme in them and the audience. Read More