Publish Writing 5

Poetry is a beautiful way of expressing the internal feeling like love. Love cannot be defined by one, as it doesn’t come with a definition. Poems like “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” from the love album and the song “Takin’ Back my love” share the same theme which is love. They all have one thing in common. Both of these poems and this song has been written for one special person. The first poem, “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter”, poet writes it for her husband. The second poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, poet also wrote it for her husband.

Erza Pound in her poem “The River-Merchant’s Wife: A Letter” writes to her husband. She is narrating her husband how they got married at the age of fourteen and it took almost an year for her to get comfortable with him, “At fifteen I stopped scowling” (Pound 11). Pound desires to live with her husband even after their deaths. She mentions her ashes to be mingled with her husband’s after death which is analyzed from the line, “my dust to be mingled with yours” (Pound, 12). The emotions of the wife are not described in words but are actually projected out in images and tones while she progresses in her relationship. The tone of the poem changes where she refers to her husband as “Lord” but then she comes down in her tone when says “you”. This marks the starting of a sadness and sorrow. Just next to this, Pound mentions, “I looked at the wall” (Pound 9). This lets us know how she never looked directly into the eyes of her husband and this is understood clearly as this poem is written in the time period when women were not even allowed to vote. Therefore mentioning up of “I never laughed” (Pound 8) lets the readers know that her married life didn’t start well. So overall the tone of the poem goes sorrowful when she discusses about the beginning of marriage but the tone improves when she falls in love with her husband at the age of fifteen.

Anne Bradstreet in her poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband”, also discusses about her love she feels for her husband. She feels the happiest woman on seeing him. Anne says that if ever two can be considered one then surely they will be said so. Her love is not materialistic, “prize thy love more than whole mines of gold” (Bradstreet 5). Her love has more priorities than the riches in the east. Her love’s thirst cannot be filled by the rivers, “My love is such that rivers cannot quench” (Bradstreet 7). At last the poet has expressed her desire to live ever and ever just like Pound. The tone of this poem is happiness, pride and passion. Every single line of this poem reflects the emotion and passion for her love towards her husband. Anne is happy in tone as she is constantly using words like “happy”, “loved”, “prize” and “heavens”. Also she is prideful to have such love for her husband because she is ready to quit the materialistic beauty like gold etc.

Enrique Iglesias’s song “Takin Back my Love” also depicts the theme love. The singer has conveyed the meaning through words and music in it. The song is high in music and tone but still conveys the similar message which poets tried to convey. Enrique sings, “I’m not attached to materials” which is quite similar to what Anne has said in her poem. The lovers in both the cases have expressed no concern for external beauty which is the materialistic beauty. Though in the song, music has zeal in it but the tone is actually sorrowful. He has devoted himself to his love and considers her his world, “Cause you meant the world”. The similar thing is seen in both the poems where the love has gone deep for one person and tries to convey the message to the other person.

The two poems share some connection. Though love has no definition but the ways different people express it, they still share some common thoughts. In these two poems, poets talk about staying together ever after, which signifies one of the important themes of love. When defining a common thing like love in this case, poems and music do the same job. Both convey similar message by different ways. The expression for love doesn’t depend on the time in which it was expressed. For instance, Erza Pound wrote the poem in a different time period but her ways of expressing, came out to be similar to others. This proves that the true feelings which are mostly felt for others when come out in words, find the familiarity with the works of others irrespective of their time periods.