The author of this essay will aim to establish how the poet uses psychological, physical and emotional parameters to convince his lover that their relationship is not dead. This poem could be classed as a Metaphysical Love poem. The poem ‘Our Love Now is a modern poem written by Martyn Lowery.
The poem is an argument between two lovers and is written in stanzas where the man speaks first expressing his opinion and then the woman’s. The man is of the opinion that whatever has occurred within the relationship negatively can be repaired whereas it is completely the opposite where the woman is concerned.This is so ironical (physical parameter used by the poet) as there is no common ground between the man and the woman in the relationship with a view to ‘mend’ what is broken. The poem shows the different psychological behaviours towards an issue that has occurred within the relationship.
They are at loggerheads about the effects of an issue that has affected the relationship negatively (emotional parameter). Should we take the first stanza, the rift in the relationship is metaphorically expressed as that of an injury (a cut).In this scenario the use of a noun symbolises that something painful had taken place, reading on alliteration comes into play signifying that this will take time to heal (skin slowly) and patience to get back to where they need to be. this is the opinion of the man. In strong contrast to this, here comes the woman practical and sincere point of view.
She believes that the relationship is perpetually broken thus cannot be repaired. The emotional aspect of the relationship has changed (love is not as strong or even there anymore).Again the poet has added volumes to the metaphor in the next stanza of the poem ‘observe the scab of the scald’ to emphasize this. The repetition of the‘s’ (alliteration) signifies that these were angry words that that have had a profound effect on them and have left them frightened. The man diligently believes that all this can be erased and they can regain the love they had.
The woman disagrees and believes that the contempt and resentment will remain and that whatever has happened will be etched in her memory forever.This is reflected in the next stanza with reference to the cutting of the hair that with time it will grow (the man) however she agrees it will grow with time but in a different style, indicating that it will never be the same. In the poem ‘Rubbish at Adultery’ written by Sophie Hannah, negativity is optimised by the woman in this poem. First of all let’s look at the title of the poem! What is rubbish? Rubbish is often defined as a thing of no value. Yet this is how the woman portrays the action of this man and his attitude towards the relationship. She is very irritable towards the man and also very disagreeable.
She lets him know that she is annoyed and angry at him for his pathetic excuse for whom he is (a dreadful swine). He is presenting himself in a manner where he thinks he has a conscience (emotional parameter) to gain the sympathy of the woman. She on the hand is having none of it and presents herself as a victim in this adulterous relationship, wherein society will only view her as the villain as she is knowledgeable of the fact that he is married. The comparison of these two poems is that one is more complex with a lot of metaphors whilst the other is a straight read down the page.
Rubbish at Adultery is written in a formal way with the exception of the use of ‘crap’ and ‘stupid, stupid git’ whilst ‘Our Love Now’ is far more complex and requires the reader to dig deep to get the full understanding. Finally in the poem ‘He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven’ written by William Yeats, he is neither trying to mend or is disgruntled about a relationship at all. He is merely expressing a futuristic approach to a relationship he would like to have. In other words, like the old saying, ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride’.
He is expressing what he would offer his lover if he could have the cloths of heaven.This is an expression of helplessness and a case of hopelessness as well. All he has is his dreams and these he places in her possession. There is an example of psychological empathy going here as he wants her to believe that her actions and will influence the outcome of these dreams.
Here the author of the poem uses pathetic fallacy to convey the state that the character is in, his reference to ’ being poor’ illustrates hi incapacity to proclaim his love physically and as such has humbled him to express this in a ‘virtual’ almost ‘dreamlike’ fashion.
