The Love Poem

‘The Love Poem’ is part ofCarol Ann Duffy’s2005poetry collectionRapture.The poetry collection centres on a love affair, following Duffy’s typical exploration of relationships beyond heteronormative and other traditional conventions in her work. Within 'The Love Poem', Duffy discusses the difficulty of writing a love poem, touching on themes including relationships and contemporary culture.

Context of 'The love poem’

Let's dive into the biographical and literary context of this poem!

Biographical context

Carol Ann Duffy is aScottishpoet.In1983Duffy won theNational Poetry Competition,and in2009she was appointedPoet Laureateof the United Kingdom, becoming the first woman to receive the position since its creation in 1616. Her collectionStanding Female Nude(1985) established her as a key figure in poetry.

In a2013 article, Duffy highlighted how all of the poems in her collectionRapturewerewholly biographical(The Guardian).Duffy’s own experience as a gay woman has influenced her approach to love in her work. She oftensubvertstraditional expectations of relationships and romance in her poems. 'The Love Poem’ both examines how to write a love poem and express one’s feelings for another, and the influence of the famous love poems of the past on love poetry today.

Literary context

Thestyleof'The Love Poem'is defined bymodernism,as its fragmented structure does not follow a regularmeter, as expected from traditional love poetry. ‘The Love Poem’ is part of Duffy’s2005poetry collectionRapture,which contains a range of poems written in different forms and styles, following thestory of a love affair.To an extent, the poetry collection is amodern-day sonnet sequence.However, instead of being made up of sonnets, the collection consists of various poems in different forms, styles, and structures.

‘The Love Poem’ analysis

现在让我们来看看这首诗本身,。

Title

The poem’s title is simple and self-explanatory. 'The Love Poem' immediately indicates to the reader that the poem will focus on the topic of love. However, the simplicity of the title also suggests a lack of creativity as the poet struggles to come up with a title which evokesimageryof love or admiration, such as ‘She Walks in Beauty’ (Lord Byron, 1814) or ‘You say you love; but with a voice’ (John Keats, 1817). The title also contrasts with the complexity of the poem itself which is dominated byenjambment,as the poet struggles to find the right words or structure to express their love.

Form

The poem is written infree verse, with anirregular structureandrhyme scheme. Its use of quotes from other famous love poems produces acollage-like effect.

Structure

Throughout the poem we see the poet struggle to convey her feelings, underpinned by Duffy’s use ofenjambmentto create afree-flowing yet fragmentedrhythmwhich stops and starts.

The poem consists ofthree twelve-line stanzas,each opening with asubordinate clauseand closing with anend-stopped line.This structure creates the idea that the poet is attempting to write a love poem, scrapping their work and starting again. During the course of the poem, the narrator goes through a number of thought processes regarding how to present their feelings.

Stanza one

In this stanza the narrator struggles to start their poem, evident through theenjambmentbetween lines. This use of enjambment indicates that the narrator is struggling to construct their poem and convey their feelings.

A comparison is drawn between famous love poems and 'modern love poems'. The narrator highlights how they don’t want their love poem to appear as a copy, deciding that they won’t state'thou shalt feel love', as this has already been used by former greatpoets.

Stanza two

In the second stanza, the narrator appears to be stuck on what to say, unable to conjure up the right thoughts to write a poem. The opening line of the poem'till love gives in and speaks'indicates that the narrator is waiting for their feelings to'give in'and form the right words. The heavy use of lines from previous love poems in this stanza further highlights how the narrator is struggling to find the right, unique words to express what they're feeling.

Stanza three

In the final stanza, the narrator begins again, opening with anothersubordinate clause.Here, some of the direct quotations from previous poems stand out more than in previous stanzas, most notably'O my America! My new-found land' - from John Donne’s‘To His Mistress Going to Bed’(1633).

Poetic devices

Let's explore thepoetic devicesused in 'The Love Poem'.

Enjambment

Enjambmentis used throughout the majority of the poem, to create afragmented, yet free-flowing rhythm.This rhythm is similar to astream-of-consciousness,as the narrator stumbles through their thought process while constructing the poem.For instance, in the second half of the first stanza, Duffy writes;

Theenjambmentbetween 'come live'and 'with me-'creates afragmented rhythm,indicating that the narrator is hesitant in their request and confession of love. Even though the sentence'come live with me'is animperative, the enjambment takes away its forcefulness, further indicating that the narrator is uncertain of how to write a love poem.

End-stopped lines

At the end of each stanza, Duffy utilisesend-stoppedlines to break up the free-flowing structure within the stanza itself. For instance, the second stanza ends with;

The use ofend-stopped linesseparates each stanza, indicating that the narrator is restarting the poem each time.

‘The Love Poem’Language devices

Let's look at the language devices in the poem.

Simile

Duffy makes use ofsimilesin each of her stanzas.Comparative languageis common across romantic poetry, particularly comparisons to the natural world in the context of theliterary movement ofromanticism.

In the final stanza, the poem reflects on love as 'all in the mind', captured by 'the writer’s hand', expressed by thesimile;

Thissimileimplies that, by writing a love poem, the narrator intends to capture their emotions in verses which can be learned and recited; in effect, 'like a prayer’. Thereligious connotationssuggest that the narrator perceives their love as a form of worship.

Personification

Personificationis used to great effect at the start of the poem’s first two stanzas;

And,

Throughpersonifying love,Duffy adds human aspects to anabstract noun,creating a more real image of love in our minds, rather than a purelyconceptual one. Moreover, by bringing this abstract concept to life Duffy gives power to it, implying that the narrator may be battling with their emotions to create a love poem. The emotion of love refuses to give in and speak, despite the narrator's attempts to capture their feelings on paper.

Intertextuality

Intertextualityis a notable technique in 'The Love Poem'. Duffy's continuous references to famous love poems through her use of direct quotes and allusions, highlights how the narrator feels the influence of traditional romantic poetry, and is struggling to break its mould and subvert traditional expectations.

The phrases in the poem taken from previous works include:

William Shakespeare's'Sonnet130' (1609):

Elizabeth Barrett Browning's'Sonnet43' (1850):

John Donne's'To His Mistress Going to Bed' (1654):

And, 'The Song of Solomon' (The Bible):

By referencing such a variety of traditional love poems, Duffy highlights their lasting influence on our own perception of love and relationships.

Tone and imagery of ‘The Love Poem’

Afrustrated toneis present in the poem, as the narrator struggles to convey their love to an unknown addressee.

This frustrated tone is most noticeable through the poet’s use ofenjambment. Although the lack ofend-stopped linesallows the poem to flow, the pauses as one line continues onto another suggest that the poet is struggling to find the right words. Thisfragmentationresults in a tone of frustration.

The repetition of 'till love' at the opening of eachstanzacreates the idea that the narrator is beginning the poem over and over again, trying to get it right. The presence of references to previous love poetry indicates that the frustrated tone of the poem has developed from the narrator’s continued, yet failed, attempts to not mimic traditional love poems. Famous verses continuously sneak into their work, highlighting how the poet struggles to construct their own unique expression of love.

Romantic imagery

The poem’s varied references to previous works make it challenging to pinpoint specificimagery. However, there is ageneral semantic field ofnaturewhich will be discussed as one of the poem’s key themes. Another image present throughout the poem islove.

Love

As expected with a love poem,imageryassociated with love is present throughout. At the opening of eachverseloveis mentioned directly (‘till love…’). Moreover, it is alluded to more subtly in the secondversewith body parts associated with the emotion of love;‘dear heart’, ‘love lips’,and‘kissing a line’,which evoke images of passionate physical love. There is also a combination ofanimalimageryandlovein the finalstanza.

The image of a moth seeking out a star, or light, highlights how love can be a driving instinctual force. The moth naturally searches for light, and is drawn to it without reason. Love can also have this effect, causing us to do things blindly.

Themes in ‘The Love Poem’

Let's look at the main themes.

Love

As with the majority of Duffy’s poetry, love is a keythemein ‘The Love Poem’. The theme is deconstructed and re-assessed throughout the poem, as the poet struggles to find a way to convey their love that doesn’t parallel the work of earlierpoets.

Immortalisation

Raptureis about an affair; this poem is a part of that collection. Throughout 'The Love Poem' there are indications that the affair has come to an end. This is confirmed by the collection's final poem 'Over'.

In the firststanzaof 'The Love Poem', Duffy references'an epitaph'. This noun brings forth connotations of death, and the memorialisation of it. An 'epitaph' on a gravestone will remain for a long time, indicating that Duffy is constructing her poem, and poetry collection, to capture a moment which has now passed, with a view to immortalising it.

This is further indicated by the references to previous love poems which the reader may be familiar with. The presence of lines from these poems in Duffy’s own work suggests that they are, to an extent, immortal - as the words used to express the love ofpoetssuch as Elizabeth Barrett Browning andWilliam Shakespearestill have influence today. The presence of these works in a contemporary context highlights the immortal nature of the poet’s works.

Nature

Imageryassociated with nature is present throughout the poem, reflective of the commonthemeof the natural world inromanticism.

Asemantic fieldof the natural world is evident; ‘high cloud’, ‘pool’, ‘love’s light’, ‘a garden’, ‘new-found land’ and ‘the star’. This highlights how the narrator is influenced by previous, more traditional, love poems. It also underpins how love is wide-reaching, embodied in everything around us, not just our internal emotions. The broadness of love, created through the theme of nature and imagery relating to it, is possibly a cause of the narrator’s struggle to convey their feelings in a single poem.