1. Have students bring in the lyrics to a favorite love song. In small groups, have them develop a list of qualities that a love song typically has (common images, purposes, ideas, speakers, audiences, etc.). In a large group, ask students to consider the reasons why love songs are written. Show 2. After listening to the podcast of the poem and marking their text as they listen, have students work in small groups to identify the parts of this text. Students may identify differences between the opening quatrain, the series of couplets that fortify the argument, and the powerful final couplet. Ask small groups to share how they would characterize the parts of the poem in terms of form, purpose, meaning, ideas, images, etc. 3. In small groups, have students design the visual script of a video to accompany this poem. What images best capture the persona of the speaker, her relationship to her husband, and “ye women?” Some students may actually produce a video with an audio recording and accompanying images.
A theme of love is one of the most popular choices made by poets of all times. A poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet and a poem “Stop All the Clocks” by W.H. Auden show how poets can use different motifs and expressive means for developing a similar theme of eternal love in their unique ways. Main motifs of the poemsA theme of eternal love lasting longer then lovers’ lives is common for the two poems under analysis. Describing their exceptional feelings, the authors use different motifs for developing a similar idea that their love is not limited to the short period of their physical existence and can continue beyond the grave. In her poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” which can be regarded as one of her domestic poems, Anne Bradstreet honors her beloved husband when their relationship is not over yet. Narrating a story of her love, the poet shares her personal experience of marriage and devotion to her beloved husband, promoting the idea that the marriage ties and family relationships are extremely important (Hilliker 435; Campbell 73). The motifs of exceptionality of her feeling and the value of its reciprocity are central to Bradstreet’s poem. Analyzing the structure of Bradstreet’s work, it can be stated that the confidence in her exquisite happiness and comparing it to material values are the main motifs intertwined in the poem for developing the main theme of eternal love. Another approach is taken for developing a similar theme of sincere love lasting beyond the grave in the poem “Stop All the Clocks” by W.H. Auden. Auden uses the motifs of mourning and the loss of the sense of life after the lover’s death for representing the idea similar to that developed in Bradstreet’s poem (Grainger 119). Auden wrote his poem after the loss of his beloved person and drew his inspiration from the pain of loss. Focusing on the relationships between love, devotion and death, the poem includes an implied motif of suicide (Ward 83). A motif of the interruption of life race due to the loss of a beloved person and the sense of existence takes an important place in Auden’s poem. According to Hillman and Phillips (2007), the poet’s intentions to stop the clocks and preventing dogs from barking are meant to convey the silence of death (14). Therefore, in contrast to Bradstreet’s work, the dominating mood of Auden’s poem is rather pessimistic. Raising similar themes of eternal love, Bradstreet and Auden choose different motifs for expressing their ideas which change the dominating mood of the poems. Developing a theme of eternal love, Bradstreet and Auden used a variety of expressive means, including those of metaphors, similes and symbols for expressing their exquisite happiness and mourning respectively. The poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” contains a number of hyperboles which are used to convey exceptionality of her feeling and her confidence in its reciprocity. For example, the lines “If ever two were one, ten surely we/ If ever man were lov’d by wife, then thee” (Booth and Mays 115). The author emphasizes the exceptionality by almost denying the existence of similar feelings in other relationships. However, these hyperboles are explained with the overwhelming feeling dominating in the poem which can substitute the common sense and any logical reasoning. The similes used by Bradstreet include the comparison of her husband’s feelings and the mines of gold and the riches of the east are meant to create contrasts between the material and spiritual values, demonstrating the importance of the latter. The metaphor of rivers which cannot quench the poet’s feeling is used to show the flame in her heart which cannot be suppressed due to external circumstances. The metaphors used by Auden in “Stop All the Clocks” are used for expressing the pain of loss and wish to interrupt the race of life after the death of a beloved person. It is notable that most metaphors chosen by the poet are connected with sounds. By stopping the clock, preventing the dog from barking and silencing the piano, the author intends to hear the silence of death and lose the connection with reality which irritates him after the tragedy. The importance of the contrasting motifs of sounds, music and silence can be seen in similes used by Auden for expressing his deep love and devotion to his lover. Auden compares his lover to a talk and song which means that after his death, the poet cannot see the sense in sounds and music. Other symbols which are used for describing the sense of author’s existence include the stars, moon and sun which the poet offers to hide and dismantle. The final line of Auden’s poem is pessimistic and expresses an important motif of the loss of sense of life due to the departure of a beloved person. ConclusionAs it can be seen from the analysis of a poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband” by Anne Bradstreet and a poem “Stop All the Clocks” by W.H. Auden, even selecting a similar theme of eternal love, poets can choose different motifs and expressive means for expressing their ideas and various shades of their feelings and emotions. Works CitedBooth, Alison and Kelly J. Mays. The Norton Introduction to Literature (Shorter Tenth Edition). Norton & Company, 2010. Print. Campbell, Helen. Anne Bradstreet and Her Time. Kessinger Publishing, 2010. Print. Grainger, Roger. The Uses of Chaos. Peter Lang Publishers, 2010. Print. Hilliker, Robert. “Engendering Identity: The Discourse of Familial Education in Anne Bradstreet and Marie de l’Incarnation”. Early American Literature 42.3 (2007): 435 – 452, Print. Hillman, David and Adam Phillips. The Book of Interruptions. Peter Lang Publishers, 2007. Print. Ward, Mary. The Literature of Love. Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Need a custom Essay sample written from scratch by
In the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Our House” the author Anne Bradstreet allows the reader a glimpse of what she values. The two poems are alike because they both explore her religion and show her love for God. In these two poems they let you get a glimpse of the way she looked at things and saw the good side of everything. For example, in “ To My Dear and Loving Husband” it says “ if ever a man were loved by wife, then thee; if ever wife was happy in man,”. These two sentences show that she loves her husband with all her love and he loves her very much and she says that even if there was a man who could love her more she wouldn’t give him up. Also in the poem “ To my loving husband and loving Husband” she
To read ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’ by Anne Bradstreet in modern-day, 21st century America, is kind of like stepping into a daydream. In a society where the majority of marriages fail, scandal runs rampant, and divorce is almost expected, this poem of Anne Bradstreet is like a breath of fresh air. Her deep and genuine love for her husband is clear and evident. To My Dear and Loving Husband Anne Bradstreet If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold, Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay; The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let’s so persever, That when we live no more, we may live ever.
 ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband‘ by Anne Bradstreet is a beautiful poem praising the mutual love between the poet and her beloved husband. ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’ by Anne Bradstreet is a love poem. It talks about the sweet relationship between the poet and her husband. Through this poem, the poet glorifies her loving husband. She feels like they are no different. They are one. There are no such materialistic things that can be compared with their feelings for one another. The poet has a thirst for the love of his husband and his heart has the thing the poet longs for. In fact, by writing this verse Anne Bradstreet wants to immortalize her love for her husband. As poetry is something that outlives men, their love will remain forever in these lines of the poem. ‘One day I wrote her name upon the strand’ by Edmund Spenser also says the same thing at its end. Detailed AnalysisLine 1Bradstreet begins the poem, ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’, with a proclamation.
This reveals her truly deep love for her husband by claiming that if any two people in the history of marriages have ever been bonded together as though they were one person, then surely she and her husband are bonded together in this deep and intimate way. Line 2
In the second line, Bradstreet reassures her husband of her own love and commitment to him by claiming that she loves him as much as any woman has ever loved a man. This is a great claim, as there are countless lovers in the world. But she is confident that she loves her husband as much as any woman has ever loved a man. Lines 3-4
In the third and fourth lines, she reassures her husband that she is happy with him. She challenges him to compare her with any other woman and see that she herself is happiest of all women because she is married to him. Lines 5-6
In the fifth and sixth lines, she proclaims to her husband that his love is worth far more to her than any amount of money could ever be worth. She claims that she values his love “more than whole mines of gold” and even more than “all the riches that the East doth hold”. This shows that she values the human feeling of love in connection and commitment to another person far more than she could ever value any amount of material wealth. Line 7
In the seventh line, she reveals that even though she is the happiest of women, she does not count herself fully satisfied, because the nature of her love for him is such that she feels she can never get enough. This is why she says. “My love is such that rivers cannot quench”. Line 8
In the eighth line, she reveals her gratitude for being the recipient of her husband’s love, by claiming that she could never “recompense” his love. This shows that she feels so loved by her husband that she doesn’t believe she could ever make him feel as loved as he has made her feel. Lines 9-10
In the ninth line, she reiterates her thought that his love is deeper than what she could ever return by saying, “Thy love is such I can no way repay”. And since she doesn’t believe that she herself could ever repay her husband for the love he has bestowed on her, she prays to God that He will bless her husband in reward for the way he has loved his wife (line 10). Line 11-12
She ends ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’ by claiming that they will persevere in love until the end. Bradstreet has no doubt that she and her husband will stay married and in love until one passes from this life to the next. This is revealed when she says, “Then while we live, in love let’s so persever”. The final line of this poem ends with a small glimpse into the next life. She says, “That when we live no more, we may live ever”. This line suggests that their love with being eternal. She believes that even after this life is over, they will continue to be in love for all of eternity. Tone‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’ is a subjective poem about the poet’s love for her dear husband. The poetic persona in the poem, the poet herself, adopts an amorous tone in the poem. In each line of the poem, her tone emanates the spirit of love. She creates a mood of romance in the verse. The tone of the poem has a distinct quality in comparison to the romantic poems written by a man for his lady love. The womanly tone of the persona adds a different flavor to the poem. The cool and calm sensation of the soothing breeze of nature is there in the poem. There is also a tone of gratitude in the poem. The poet appears to be grateful for her husband’s presence in her life. For this reason, she says, “Thy love is such I can no way repay”. Structure & Rhyme SchemeAnne Bradstreet’s ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’ is a short poem of twelve lines. The poet employs the closed couplet form in the poem. Every two lines of the poem are able to reflect the completeness of sense. It was famous at the time while Anne Bradstreet was writing this poem. As the poet uses the closed couplet form, the rhyme scheme of the poem naturally has to be a regular one. Likewise, the poet uses the regular rhyme scheme in the poem. The rhyme scheme of the poem is AA BB CC DD. It goes on like this until the end. As an example, in the first two lines of the poem, “we” and “thee” rhyme together. In the following two lines, “man” and “can” are rhyming together. The last two lines contain “persever” and “ever”. These two words rhyme together in the mentioned lines. Such kind of rhyming of the poem maintains a fluid-like flow in the poem. It never halts in the middle. Like the love of the poet for her beloved husband never ceases. Literary Devices‘My Dear and Loving Husband’ contains several important literary devices. Let’s have a look at the devices used in the poem. The first three lines of the poem begin with the same words “If ever”. It’s an example of anaphora. The second line of the poem contains hyperbole. The poet uses hyperbole to emphasize her feelings for her husband. It’s not for mere exaggeration. Likewise, the poet uses another hyperbole in the next line. There is an apostrophe in the line, “Compare with me, ye women, if you can.” There is a metonymy in the usage of the word “East” in the poem. The poet uses a personification in the line, “The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.” Here, an abstract concept “heaven” seems to be acting like a person who can give rewards. It is also a metonymy. The last line presents an antithesis. It also sounds like an epigram. There is greater truth behind this line. ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband‘ contains some important metaphors in the poem. It is needless to say such poems with high intensity of emotions must contain metaphors to give poetic emotions wings to fly and a voice to sing. The poet uses a metaphor in the line, “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold”. It refers to the invaluable quality of love. In the line, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench”, the poet compares her love to thirst. It is also another metaphorical reference to physical love. The poet uses a metaphor of a valuable object by using the word “repay” in the 9th line of the poem. In the last line of the poem, the phrase, “live ever” is a metaphorical reference to the immortal quality of art or a poem. It also refers to eternity. Historical BackgroundAnne Bradstreet was one of the very first women to publish any poetry or works of literature in America. She was a Puritan, and so she believed in life after death and put her hope in this belief. This is shown in the last two lines of ‘To My Dear and Loving Husband’. Bradstreet had many intellectual ideas and loved to discuss religion. She enjoyed nature and writing, and she became a beacon of hope for many female writers who wished to be acknowledged for their intellect. Although Bradstreet adhered to the male hierarchy promoted in her society at this time, one must remember that she was a Puritan and that under her influence and beliefs, she did her best to promote the acknowledgment of the intellect and ability of women everywhere. Bradstreet did not fight the system, as many later women would, but this is perhaps because in her personal experience, she had a loving father and a loving and gentle husband, and so she promoted women within the context of male hierarchy. She did not, apparently, personally feel the oppression many women must have felt at her time. This poem particularly reveals that Anne seems to have been in a loving and genuine marriage in which her husband did not oppress her, but loved and esteemed her. |
What do both To My Dear and Loving Husband and to the Kings most excellent Majesty communicate to the reader?
zusammenhängende Posts
Urheberrechte © © 2024 wiewird Inc.
