Ayaat Abo-Gulel

The Love Poem

The love poem – is in effect saying that finding words is extraordinarily difficult, but the poets of the past have
expressed what they have to say with such skill and beauty that they stand for modern generations.

Context

I agree with the following statement as Duffy’s use of post-modernistic devices reminds the reader of how
literature can explore complex concepts in a more simplistic sense as words are being used to create the
acknowledgment of the nature of love. Duffy builds on the idea of poetry being a large coping mechanism in
people’s lives to attempt to express themselves when clearly speaking words out loud may be difficult, therefore
by writing these words out onto a paper allows the understanding of feelings and emotions from an outer
perspective. Love is a universal feeling but is so difficult to express and explain that the attempting of words
only dives into a minority selection of how advance these feelings really are – therefore only giving a glimpse
into the dangerously beautiful love that we all seek to achieve in our lives. Poetic devices may sometimes seem
to be overly exaggerated such as “love’s lips pursed to quotation marks” - from some point of views, this
metaphor explains the confusion that follows with love, sensuality is a characteristic in relationships and that
sometimes sexuality can be confusing – these literary poetic devices used by writers like Duffy helps audiences
to share opinions and relate to feelings that are being explored. Especially during the time of Duffy – the
exploration of love (especially as a woman) was rarer to see – the raw love that many people are blinded to
because of the overly romanticized conception of love is discovered by the reality of Duffy’s love poems. Love
and relationships are not all sunshine and rainbows, there will be times of darkness but that is when it is
important to have the knowledge of all relationships naturally having this. And because of this lack of
knowledge there is inner conflict within people as their feelings become real, where negative emotions do start
to arise and because of this the conflict of how to deal with these emotions increases.

Stylistics Analysis

 Language

80. References of love poems in ‘The Love Poem’ are;

‘My Mistress Eyes’ from Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet 130’,
‘Let me count the ways’ from ‘Sonnet 43’ of Elizabeth Barret Browning’s Sonnets from the Portuguese, ‘Come
live with me’ from Christopher Marlow’s ‘The Passionate Shepherd to his love’,
‘One hour with thee’ from ‘An Hour with Thee’ by Walter Scott,
‘Dear heart, how like you this?’ from Sir Thomas Wyatt’s ‘They Flee From Me’,
‘Look in thy heart and writes’, from Sir Philip Sidney’s sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella,
‘There is a garden in her face’ has been taken from poem by Thomas Campion,
‘O my America! My new-found land’ is extracted from another John Donne poem,
‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’,
‘The desire of the moth for the star’ has been taken from ‘One Word is Too Often Profaned’ by Shelley.

81. The use of other poets work in ‘The Love Poem’, amplifies on the description of love. The use of the
literary canon (the most highly valued, influential, socially significant works in literature). This poem
approaches the difficulty of writing a love poem as love is so vast, so universal and influential in lives that just
putting it into words doesn’t convey what love is. The simplicity of putting the feelings of love into words is
attempted through Duffy’s use of intertextuality. There are no new ways to express love; no one can fully
express what love is.

82. Duffy foreshadows the end of the relationship by the message behind the entirety of the poem itself, the
complex thoughts and difficulty in expressing emotions highlights the sense of losing. The references to other
texts and the love they describe foreshadow the end by suggesting that love is bewildering, often built from
fragments of past experiences. The poem implies that love is an amalgamation of memories and borrowed lines,
hinting that the relationship may not be as original or sustainable as it seems, the borrowed lines will eventually
run out; reflecting onto the relationship itself, supposedly also vanishing.

83. “The desire of the moth/for the star” - is a reference to Shelley; moths are drawn to the light; the instinct of
the moth shows the natural attraction the speaker has towards the lover. It symbolises the heart’s desire for
something distant, and the idea of someone wanting something they cannot have; we always seek out love. The
reference to the ‘star’ could also imply the sun, and how the sun may be beautiful from a distance, but if you get
too close, it can inflict pain and cause danger or even death. The use of stars connotates celestial imagery.
Celestial symbolism in writing refers to celestial bodies such as the sun, stars and moon to explore deeper
meanings in literary work by conveying abstract emotions and ideas through concrete images. Stars are often
used as symbols for hope, guidance and destiny – implying fate between the speaker and lover.

 Form and Structure

84/85. This poem has 12 verses in each three stanzas, there is a sense of order. Implying that the words that
have been written on the page were thought through, there is deep meaning into every verse used to help the
reader grasp a sense of emotion coming from the speaker. Even though there is a characteristic of modernism
portrayed within the structure, there is also a fragmented appearance as it deteriorates from the normal regular
metrical schemes. Therefore, this contrast implemented by Duffy gives significance to the reader as we are able
to acknowledge the foreshadowing of the downfall of relationship and how her emotions have started to
fluctuate like a rollercoaster. There are also a lot of references to language lexical fields which shows that she is
aware of the poem – there is a tone of post-modernism.

Critical and theoretical approaches