The English School

Juan Carlos Buitrago

Love Poetry:

`Love poems, like love itself, can be light-hearted, heavy-hearted, or passionate.' Discuss three poems, showing how relationships can be presented in different ways.

Thursday, 04 May 2006

Contents

• Introduction

• `i wanna be yours' by John Cooper Clarke

• `Valentine' by Carol Ann Duffy

• `Our Love Now' by Martyn Lowery

• Conclusion

• Bibliography

Introduction

This essay will discuss how love poems compare to love itself, be relating them with whether they are light-hearted or heavy-hearted. This will be shown by investigating each poems tone, point of view and attitude towards the relationship presented. The poems to be examined will be, “i wanna be yours” by John Cooper Clarke, “Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy, and “Our Love Now” by Martyn Lowery. For each poem, there is a conclusion that at the end of the essay will combine to create an overall conclusion about each poem and what it refers to the title. The conclusion will also cover some other conclusions that refer to ideas that conveys with the main theme of the conclusion. But still, the main conclusion will be over the title, to show in support that `Love poems, like love itself, can be light-hearted, heavy-hearted and/or passionate.'

i wanna be yours:

The poem “i wanna be yours” by John Cooper Clarke, is a passionate but light-hearted poem. This will be explained during the course of this following section, by the use of its poetic techniques, the tone of the poem and the point of view towards the relationship presented.

As an example of a poetic technique, the author always uses typical home devices as metaphors. This demonstrates how passionate the poem can be but also light hearted. The example is:

let me be your electric meter

i will not run out

Here, the author is mentioning that he will not be bothersome to her. This is taken from an image that happens every time an electric meter runs out in homes that uses this appliance. When this happens, it is really bothering to go and find the meter and insert more money into it to make the rest of the home devices work, this is even worse when it happens at night. So when he says “i will not run out,” he is saying that he will not be of any annoyance to her. But also, to a further extent there is another side to these lines. The author used this as some kind of innuendo to refer that during a sexual intercourse, he will never run out of passion and energy so he will for ever be a good lover.

This poetic technique of using every day home devices as metaphors is used to a large extent through out the poem giving the reader a sense of a lack of seriousness, confirming that this is a light-hearted poem. This last point is also established because of the lack of punctuation used in the poem. Thanks to this, the poem gains a fast pace making the rhythm very musical.

Also, the poem says all this with an attitude that states that for a person to be able to accept somebody's love, there has to be trust between the couple. This is demonstrated through out the poem, like for example:

let me be your ford cortina

i will never rust

This means that he is asking to be a car that was used to be known to every reliable at that time. Also, this verse emphasizes that there has to be trust in a relationship in some families, a car is vital. So that is why he is asking to be her reliable car, as a sign that he can be trusted.

Furthermore, the author at the end of the poem, shows how he can be trusted even though he has another woman. This gives a twist in the poems tone because it is at this point that the poem becomes heavy-hearted. The example is:

i don't wanna be hers

i wanna be yours

In here, when the author says “i don't wanna be hers” he is saying that he in fact does not want to be with the other woman, he wants to be with her.

In addition, he mentions that the woman he met can be trusted at the end of every stanza, like for example:

i don't care

i wanna be yours

Here, the author refers that he will not argue about any decisions the woman takes. This means he has full confidence in her and that she is capable of being trusted.

In conclusion, it can be said that the main point of view towards the relationship is that there can't be a relationship without trust. Also, with the unserious poetic techniques, the tone of the poem and its point of view towards its relationship, even if at the end there is a heavy-hearted undertone in the poem, it can be concluded that the poem is a light-hearted and both passionate poem, just like love itself.

Valentine:

The poem “Valentine” by Carol Ann Duffy is a heavy-hearted poem that expresses love in a very serious, realistic but pessimistic and sinister way. This will be further explained within the course of this section, by the use of its poetic techniques, tone of the poem and the point of view towards the relationship presented.

As a poetic technique, the author uses an onion to symbolise love in all of its ways. This gives a pessimistic tone to the poem and makes it a heavy-hearted poem. An example of this would be:

Lethal.

Its sent will cling to your fingers,

Cling to your knife.

Here, the author is mentioning that love can be dangerous and lethal. It also states, in the part “Its sent will cling to your fingers, /Cling to your knife.” that if you do get hurt by love, it will leave a strong and permanent mark on each one of the couple. This gives a very pessimistic way of thinking about love, as to think that love can kill.

Additionally, the main point of view of the poem and its attitude towards love is that love can be many sided. It can be powerful, it can be painful, and because of this it is very dangerous. And not only that, it can also have a long, damaging effect.

Another poetic technique is that at the beginning of every stanza, she always starts by giving an order. This gives the feeling that she is very serious of what she is saying and thus making it a heavy-hearted poem, like for example:

I give you an onion.

This tells us that she is very demanding and direct to the poem's recipient. This is shown in the part “I give you,” which means that she is not giving the man any chance but to receive the onion and wait for an explanation. This gives a sense of control by the woman and gives the feeling that it is a very serious poem and that love is looked upon in a very realistic but serious way.

Besides this, Carol Ann Duffy also uses sibilance in only one part of the poem.

Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,

Possessive and faithful

In here, she uses sibilance in the constant repetition of the `S' sound, to give out the sound of a snake to the reader. This is intended to make the feeling that love, is very sneaky and sinister.

In conclusion, it can be said that because of its pessimistic tone, its strong point of view and its attitude towards love, the poem is a heavy-hearted poem, just like love itself.

Our Love Now:

The poem “Our Love Now” by Martyn Lowery is a passionate and heavy-hearted poem. This will be explained during the course of this following section, by the use of its poetic techniques, tone of the poem and its point of view towards the relationship presented.

An example of a poetic technique that shows how the poem is heavy-hearted, is the way the poem is structured. It is written in two columns and each of these is divided into four equal sections, each facing exactly each other. This makes it easier to know what did the woman answered to the man directly after he said something to her.

Also, he always starts a new stanza of the left column with an order, giving the poem heavy-hearted tone. An example of this is would be:

observe the scab of the scald.

This means, that the man is very demanding when it comes to persuading people to do something. This is shown in the part “observe.” Here, the man is not asking if the woman could see his point of view to the problem, but instead, he is commanding her to change her point of view.

In addition, at the end of each stanza of the right column the author always ends them with the same word (except for the last stanza):

Such is our love now.

This means that “now” the love between the couple ended. The author uses this repetition, to show that the woman really does not believe in him anymore. It also emphasizes the state of the relationship that they are going through that moment.

A good point to observe is the fact that for every argument the man makes up to convince the woman to stay with him, the woman always finds some way to contradict him and saying that the best thing to do in that moment is to leave, showing that this is a heavy-hearted poem. An example of this is:

which can never be repaired.

This mentions the attitude towards love and the poems point of view about love. Since the woman is always denying the man by saying that some things can not be forgiven. This is mentioned in the part “which can never be repaired.” Here she says that although the danger of the storm is over, some things that the storm left can not be repaired. The storm in this case symbolises love and its danger.

As a conclusion, it can be said that the point of view of the poem and attitude towards love is that some things can not be forgiven. Even if the person involved is the one you love the most, there is always something that is so bad to you that it just simply can not be excused. Because of this it can also be said that the poem is passionate and also heavy-hearted, just like love.

Conclusion

To conclude this essay there are various things to mention. To start of, all three poems show a particular similarity and it is that they all talk about persuasion. In `i wanna be yours', the author is persuading a woman to accept him in to his life. This is done in a very light-hearted but also passionate way. In `Valentine', the author is convincing the man to accept her love the way she sees it. This is now expressed in a very heavy-hearted and pessimistic way. And in `Our Love Now' the author is encourage the woman to stay with him after something bad has happened. This is again done in a very heavy-hearted way. So even though the levels of persuasion are different in each poem, they are all trying to reach the same goal which is, to persuade somebody in terms of the love they feel for each other.

Secondly, a basic difference between the poems is the method of persuasion. In `i wanna be yours', the character uses typical home devices as metaphors to express his love to the woman. This gives a very non-serious feeling of the poem, making it sound more like a light-hearted poem. In contrast, `Valentine' uses instead an onion to show how she feels that love is and through that, it gives a very serious way to think about love and so it makes it sound like a heavy-hearted poem. And finally, in `Our Love Now', the man uses normal life situations to show how what happened between the couple is normal and should not be so bad, as to make the woman stop loving the man.

To close this essay, we can conclude that because of all of what is written throughout this poem, love poems can be light-hearted, heavy-hearted or passionate, just like love itself.

Bibliography

• `i wanna be yours' by John Cooper Clarke

• `Valentine' by Carol Ann Duffy

• `Our Love Now' by Martyn Lowery

Page 3

Page 4

Page 6

Page 8

Page 10

Page 11