Explication of May Swenson’s “Question” May Swenson’s “Question” deals with examining oneself. We can see this poem from a woman’s perspective or the speaker. It is a poem of question, where a woman engulfs herself with questions but incomplete answers, like what will her future be. The poem is relating towards lovers, perhaps a man and a woman, husband and wife; where the woman is in a state of mind of what is to be of her when her husband dies. The poem shouts the conflict, attachment. As we can see too much dependence on one person can be overwhelmingly vague and counter back because one is too naïve to do stuff on their own. “Attachment,” according to Merriam Webster dictionary is a strong feeling of affection or loyalty for someone or something. And we see this often in this poem, being overly hyped up towards a person. Now by analyzing the poem we can say that the speaker is a woman talking to a man possibly a husband and a wife again showing the woman’s belief of attachment towards her husband. For instance, “what will I do” (3) shows doubtless, and seems the words coming out of the woman, granting emotions and fear of what is to happen to her once he is gone. Thus, its also tells us the devotion the speaker has towards her husband, the value in him how he is important to her. Here, is another example of attachment, “when you are fallen” (4) granting once again the thought of dependency. Though, we can also remark this as a mystery since the poet has been known
In the third stanza it states that “If she wants to grill anything, it's her husband spitted over a slow fire. This quote makes me feel that she want to kill her husband because he is probably not helping her at home and making her his slave. I believe that this person is tired of cooking and being a slave to her husband. In the end of the poem, it also states “During dinner is not incompetence but war”. This means that this happened for a long time I believe that women all over the world are being mistreated and they should stand up for what they believe in. Therefore women should be treated the same way men are being
In stanza four the pronoun “you” is introduce. We assume its Collin prior relationship, as its only stanza that doesn’t contains Collin pet analogy and first evidence contributing to the theme. The metaphor shift to abstract when Collin deny her worthiness and what she meant to his life. But, as he subtracted himself to the “combination”, he was able to discover her value rather measuring his spouse love and intimacy. Repetitions occur, such as “awkward and bewildering” to represent the time when his spouse was companion to him, but he couldn’t reciprocate those same nurturing feelings back to her. In addition, his spouse “held” him more than he ever did. He regrets it now when he is holding his dog but the dog is incapable to measure that same actions and words because of law of nature. The last stanza line, “..now we are both lost in strange and distant neighborhood.”, is another metaphor reference the way a lost dog might feel to his lost love that can’t ever be the same
poem wherein she’s revealing her never-ending love, devotion, and appreciation for her spouse. The fact that she was born around the seventeenth century could mean it is puritan culture for women to remain reserved, regardless of how they may truly feel; however, she makes it her obligation to make her husband aware of feelings, whether positive or negative. She uses figurative language and declarative tone through imagery, repetition, and paradoxes to send her message. "To My Dear and Loving Husband" can be interpreted in many ways by many different people depending how it is initially read. This uncertainty allows the poem to be interpreted on a surface level and on a deeper level.
In stanza 12, she tells us that he has “bit her pretty red heart in two.” Next, she states that he died when she was ten, and when she was twenty years old, she attempted suicide - “…I tried to die, to get back back back to you.” In stanza 13 is where she starts talking about her husband. She says that instead of dying, her friends “stuck her together with glue,” and since she could not die to get back to her father, she would marry someone who was similar.
“My Husband Discovers Poetry”, by Diane Lockward is a very interesting piece of poetry that I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into. The idea behind the poem is that the writer felt angry and discouraged because her husband would never read her work, so essentially to get back at him she wrote a poem about cheating on him. She hid it away in the hopes that he would one day find and read it. This poem is Lockward telling the story of writing her poem, and what happens when her husband finally discovers it. The meaning of the poem is that we must support our loved ones.
The wife chooses to hold onto this doomed marriage even after knowing that her husband has betrayed her. She also knows that their love for each other is essentially a self-created illusion. She tries to maintain a positive image of her husband, from pride and need, and all while in the public eye. “Her pride assuages her almost, as if it were alone the cost”(Stanza 2, line 5-6)
The poet uses metaphors and similes that can make the poem more memorable as it helps the reader envision what is happening. The phrase "for when that fatal knot is tied,/Which nothing, nothing can divide" (lines 3–4) alludes to marriage. The metaphor "fatal knot" (line 3) denotes something that can be bound together and be dangerous at the same time. And a marriage is difficult to untie, exactly like a knot. This statement demonstrates a woman's loss of freedom and how limitations hold her back.
The poem is written in a unhappy tone somewhat similar to “The Seafarer”. “The Wanderer shows loneliness and a generally dark view of the world. Just like “The Seafarer” the speaker gives many images such as frost and cold weather to show “The Wanderer’s” sorrow. Both “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer” use weather to show how the character feels in the poem. Likewise of the common things in “The Wanderer” and “The Seafarer”,” The Wife's Lament” also has some of the same similarities
It presents the couple, husband and wife. It is a story of ongoing toxic relationship that the wife has possess over her husband’s mind. The tone of the story is shifting as the narrator describers different scenarios. After reading the first part of the poem, the reader would think that she is the “head of the household”, and he depends on her. He is presented as “…thin, dry, insecure one, the most wind, warped, you could see.
My conclusions were drawn from the very fact that although the speaker in the poem initially seems to be a random passer-by, it is obvious that he knows intimate details about the young housewife. The lines of the poem tell us that he knows that she is married and of the negligee that she wears (lines 1 & 2). It is also curious that he should refer to the specific times of her regular routines (line 1). In my mind, few people would know such things about people and feel them worthy to comment on. Someone who would certainly know and care about these things is the only other character directly mentioned in the poem, her husband. Once I had realized that it could be his voice speaking, the meaning in my mind became a lot clearer.
In the husband’s first couple of lines and his last one, his attitude toward his wife seems insensitive. First he tells her "he wants to know" why she keeps looking at through the window; then he tells her she "must tell" him. Even though he ends the last part with "dear", doesn’t make it feel any less of a demand to the wife and at the end of the poem, he ask, "Where do you mean to go? First tell me that. / I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!" (115). In between his words he seems to attempt to learn how to talk with his wife, and he ask her to help him, but she has resentment in her way.
Death is the major speaker of this poem, its persona shows how cruel and violent it can be, however she also speaks of getting everything out of life you can before death. Starting with line twenty three of the poem she begins talking about living a full life before death, "When it 's over, I want to say all my life/I was a bride married to amazement/I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms." (23-25). Being a bride married to amazement is a comparison to commitment, being with the same person every day. However in this case with a lifestyle instead. Doing amazing and memorable things every possible day you can, not letting life pass you by. This also fits perfectly with the next few lines
The speaker in the poem, “A Certain Lady” is presumably a wife, and she is speaking to her husband who is unfaithful to her. The reason she is presumed to be the man’s wife is because she seems deeply attached to him. If it was just
Once married, it is expected for women to remain faithful to their husbands. Women are expected to have different obligations to men, emphasising the “struggles women face in society” . This is shown in the opening of the poem where the expectation is heightened, “I gave myself to Him-/ And took himself, for Pay”. The speaker is a woman who has just got married, and entirely “gave” herself to him. However, it is clear to see that the same commitment is not reciprocated by the husband,
The couple in this poem has lost a baby to death. The mother is grieving and it seems she doesn't recover from this loss; parents who lose a child never forget, but most people do find ways to cope and move on in life. The baby is buried in the family burial site and can be seen from a window in the couple's home. Day after day she goes to the stairway window looking at the family plot. Looking at the place where her child's body is buried continues the sadness she feels. But, another emotion is contained in this wife and mother and that is anger and bitterness at her husband. At first, the reason for her anger seems unknown. The reasoning starts to show when it says she "refused him any help, with the least stiffening of her neck and silence."(lines13-14) Their dialogue is cold. "What is it—what? /Just that I see. / You don’t, she challenged. /Tell me what it is."(lines18-19).