TWO LOVE POEMS

1.THE DEMON LOVER-ANONYMOUS

Introduction to the poem:”The Demon Lover” is a typical ‘ballad’.It is also an example of conventional folk ballad.It is one of the many versions of ballads with this title,subject and theme.This version is in 18 stanzas,but other versions vary from 9 to 32 stanzas.Typically,this ballad tells a tragic story of a woman who is killed by a mysterious lover who returns seven years later,and much after the woman has been married and has had a son to another man.The poem was composed by some unknown bard(poet/singer) in ancient times,and it was recorded in writing about 400 years ago.It is a folk ballad which is based on the superstitious belief about demons among ancient English people.It has most of the features of the folk ballad.It is in the narrative mode of expression,but it has many dramatic elements.In its word-game,irony is the most striking device.It also has the musical elements of ballad rhythm(4+3+4+3 iambs) and a ballad rhyme-scheme of abcb.But unlike in other typical ballads,there are many rhyme-less stanzas in this poem.

What is a ballad?

A ballad is a very ancient form of poetry that narrates tales of heroic deeds,legends and loves.It is a poem that is sung and people may even dance or mimic the action being narrated.It,therefore,embodies a dramatic way of presentation where action unfolds through dialogue and characters are recognized through what they say.Refrain and repetition is a technique of the ballad.

Generally,ballad begin abruptly,use a simple language,tell the story through dialogue and action,use a tragic theme,and also make use of a refrain.The episode is single.Events lead quickly to crisis.Setting is minimized.dramatic element is strong.

Explanation of the poem:

Stanza 1:The poem begins in the form of a dialogue between a woman and a man who were in love seven years before.The man had gone away to earn money,but he had made the woman to promise that she would wait for him till he came back.However,the woman had married with a carpenter because he had not come back for a long time.She was a young girl then,but now she is a mother.The very meeting of the two begins the ‘tension’ in the very beginning of the poem.We understand the background of the past,the situation of the present,and the relationship between the characters by reading the dialogue carefully.The man and woman have just met,and they are speaking.First the woman asks the man;she asks where he had been for more than seven long years.The man replies that he had gone to get a lot of wealth(riches) for her.The question and answer of the woman and man begins to reveal the background information about the past,and it also creates the setting or situation from which the story begins.It makes the setting ‘dramatic’,as it is a feature of ballads.The ballads must draw the reader’s attention from the very beginning and maintain it until the very end when the story suddenly comes to a surprising close.

Stanza 2:In the second stanza,the man continues to speak.He tells the woman that he has now come back by remembering the promises(vows)she had made to wait for him to marry.The woman now replies to him by saying that he must forgive her promises of the past,because she is a married wife now.The dialogue is properly written so that the reader can understand the past background of the characters while the present conversation also logically develops.As the two former lovers talk,we know all the background.The dialogue is also unique for brevity(shortness) and the economy and precision of words.

Stanza 3:The man speaks to the woman now.In a more commanding tone,he tells her that if he had not remembered the promises and maintained them,he would have married a king’s daughter far beyond the sea.He says that he refused the crown of gold fpr the sake of his old love.From this speech of the man,we begin to sense a kind of conflict entering into the story.It creates some tension and uneasiness when the man tries to blackmail the married woman.Our sympathy is obviously for the woman because she is married and there is almost no use of talking about past now.

Stanza 4:The woman resists and argues with him telling him that it is his fault if he did not marry the king’s daughter.She is not very daunted by his blackmailing.She adds that it is now useless to say that because she is already married to a ship’s carpenter.She also says that she already has a son to him.This implies that an established and sincere relation is more important than a lot of riches.But this will turn out ironical later when the woman is tempted by the riches the man claims he has brought for her.

Stanza 5-6:But the woman changes her mind.She  seems to be tempted by the mention of wealth in the beginning by the man.She asks whether there will be any place to keep her,if she agrees to go with him.It is also possible that she asks this question to rhetorically assert that there is no place for her now.But what happens is that the man takes the question by its face value and starts tempting her with a description of wealth and luxury she will have if she went with him.He says that he has kept seven strong(brave) ships at sea.He tells her that they are loaded to the brim(edge) with ‘riches of great store’.This temptation continues to the next stanza.The man says what he will do for her in the future,to show and prove what he can do for her and how much he loves her.He says that he will build her a bridge of steel over the sea to help her cross it.This is the mention of his strength,courage and skill.He next highlights what luxurious life she will have with him,if she decides to go.He says that he has brought a lot of silk to cover her from top to bottom and protect her from the cold.These are the typical exaggerated temptations that the woman ought to understand to be false.

Stanza 7:The poem is in dialogue form from the first to the sixth stanza,but the next stanza are in narrative form.In the first two lines of the seventh stanza,the narrator tells us that the woman took her son into her arms and kissed him.Then the poet again employs two lines f dialogue:the mother gives her blessings to her son and also sends her good wishes to his father,her husband.She says that he doesn’t know of ‘this’ or her decision to elope with the present man who she thinks has a lot of gold for her.

Stanza 8:This is again a narrative stanza in which the narrator jumps forward from the first scene to a new one.He has left a gap between the situation of the previous stanza and that of this stanza.Now the two old lovers have left the place and are going towards the sea.The woman has sent her son home and deciding to leave her husband,has come with the other man.The two people are now walking up some street.The narrator narrates this new incident in just one line and comments on the face of the woman.He says that her face looked very beautiful to look at (behold).The man had cast a magic spell upon her face,which now looked like bright gold.This simile of gold seems to be ironical in the context of the poem,because the woman is tempted and ruined by gold.

Stanza 9:Like in the previous stanza,the narrator again jumps much ahead and tells us that the two people were walking along the sea-side.He says that the strong ships were ready to welcome the lady in.The chair of gold was really ready for her to be seated on it.That also seems to be really ironical.As we see only a little while later,the chair will be the seat of her death.

Stanza 10:This is another cinematic type of stanza that narrates another flash of scene as the characters have sailed quite a distance in the sea.They had sailed almost three leagues when the sea began to become stormy.The word ‘league’ means a unit of measuring distance which is about four kilometers.When they had travelled almost three leagues,the sea grew raging and the face of the man also suddenly changed.In this stanza,the poet has used the typical incremental repetition that is a feature of a ballad.The second line repeats the words of the first line,with new words added to them.

Stanza 11:This stanza tells us of the first tragic incident in the poem.The woman is about to lie down to rest.They have come still farther away and the man seems to be silent and unkind.Suddenly,the woman sees(spies) the feet of the man;she sees that his feet are cleft(split in two) instead of having the normal five toes.The cleft or cloven foot is a signal of the demons.The woman now realizes that he is a demon.She is now psychologically tortured.She bitterly weeps.

Stanza 12-13:Seeing the woman weep(cry) bitterly,the man asks her why she is weeping.He asks in a roundabout way that is also insulting and hurting.He asks her if she is crying for the love of gold,or if she is weeping because of fear,or if she is weeping for her husband whom she left knowingly.The  mention of gold is again ironic,though it arouses more pity than critical attitude in the reader towards the woman now.In the next stanza,the woman replies the man.Repeating his words,she says that it is not for gold or fear but for the man she left behind that she is weeping.The second of this pair of stanzas is also another example of the incremental repetition characteristic in ballads.But it emphasizes,the man’s torture of the woman by reminding her innocent husband;and it also emphasizes the woman’s sense of guilt for that.

Stanza 14-15:Now the woman herself asks a question.She sees a bright hill on the horizon and asks what hill that is.She asks this question perhaps because she is terrified and she wants to keep speaking.The man is a demon and is perhaps creating strange things to surprise and terrify her.When she asks what hill that is,he tells her that it is the hill of heaven.But he quickly adds that it is where she would never be.He is saying that he will take her to hell.This is the extreme psychological torture that he has begun to give the woman.The demon lover again uses the same strategy of psychological torture upon the woman.The woman sees a dark hill on the horizon and asks what hill that dark hill is.Perhaps the same bright hill changes into a dark one.He replies that it is the hill of hell where he and she would be.This is even more terrible than the previous one.

Stanza 16-17:In this pair of stanzas,the demon lover uses the terrifying questions to torture the woman even more.He asks whether she would like to see the fishes swimming in the bottom of the sea or to see the green leaves of plants on the banks of Italy on the other side of the sea.The woman helplessly replies that she would like to see the green leaves on the banks of Italy.It seems that she still has some hope of life and mercy from the demon.This stanza also involves the incremental repetition of a ballad.

Stanza 18:In the last stanza,the narrator makes a quick,sudden and surprising turning.The story ends with just a few words of the last two lines of the quatrain.First he tells us that the demon took the woman up to the top of the mast(wooden pole to hold the sail-cloth) to make her see around.But in the last two lines,with just fifteen shorts words,he says that “he sunk the ship in a flash of fire to the bottom of the sea”.Thus the narrative of the ballad ends in a tragic event.The poet does not state any moral or theme;The poem is like a typical folktale that is interesting and meaningful in itself.The meaning is self revealing.The poem perhaps means to suggest the danger of temptation and the punishment of insincerity.But to the people of the olden times who composed and sang this ballad,the story must also have sounded this dream-like tale very real.

2.I KNEW A WOMAN-THEODORE ROETHKE(1908-1963)

Introduction to the poet:Theodore Roethke is a unique twentieth century Romantic poet of America who was influenced by the nature,especially the greenhouses his father owned in Michigan when he was a child.As a boy,he read the great American transcendental Romantic poet and thinker R W Emerson.Known as a great teacher of poetry and of aspiring young poets,he became poet-in-residence at the University of Washington.Roethke imitated the rhythms of the nature and paralleled them with the rhythms of human life.He emphasized that “we think by feeling”,and even doubted,”what is there to know?”He is also known for some of the finest love poems of the twentieth century.Suffering from alcoholism and depression,he often wrote of his passion for the nature and his youth:the present poem must be taken one of those poems,in which he personifies the nature and even projects his desires into it as a young woman who used to satisfy all his desires and teach pleasures of life.But the poem is basically a metaphysical love poem.

Introduction to the poem:On a simple level,the poem describes a woman whom the speaker knew.In fact,he not only knew her but also enjoyed life with her and learnt to enjoy life from her.The speaker is most probably an old man who has lost the country of the young and beautiful woman.He now remembers her and all his days and his pleasures with her.He has a great sense of appreciation and love for her.In fact,he is crazy for her.Perhaps because he has lost her,he is even more passionate.His description shows that she was very beautiful,sexually attractive and playful,and young and active.He describes how she moved and how she turned.His description is also full of the ‘metaphysical’ kinds of  metaphors which exaggerate his love of her.But the poor old man seems to have lost her.But though she is not with her,he is determined to ignore the cares of life and enjoy in the behavior of the woman.He says that he will live to learn the ‘wanton’ ways of the woman.On a symbolic level,the poem can also be said that the poem is also about the poet’s metaphysical love for the nature which he personifies as a woman.It is common for metaphysical poets to project their sexual desires in the nature,like for Andrew Marvell in his poem “The Garden”.In either the ordinary or the metaphysically metaphorical sense,the poem is a powerful love poem.It is even a little vulgar in the use of sexual references and connotations.

Explanation of the poem:

Stanza 1:The speaker begins by saying that he ‘knew’ a woman who was lovely in her bones.This probably means that she was beautiful in her shape,or beautiful ‘to the core’(inside).The very first line gives  us a hint of the ‘metaphysical’ sort of expression.The second lines also adds a similar word-game:the woman used to sigh(show sadness by taking a long breath) when the birds sighed.This is a striking way to say that she was very sympathetic.Then he adds a new type of description.He says that she used to move in many ways.It means that she was active and dynamic.He says that she looked like the various shapes that a bright container can contain.The metaphoric implication of this expression can be that she had a nice and well-made looking shape.After the fourth line,the speaker changes subject.He says that only god can fully describe her special qualities(virtues);he seems to give up his efforts at describing her he has made in the first four lines.He adds a second thought and says that he would allow at least the English poets who were trained to write the classical Greek poets of love and sex like Ovid.And finally,he adds that he would make the English poets to write songs in praise of her and sing them together in a chorus standing cheek to cheek!All these are unique ways to appreciate his beloved.

Stanza 2:In the second stanza,the speaker begins to make a second effort to describe his beloved;but here he emphasizes on his experiences and memories of her.He remembers that her wishes were many and quick to change.For instance,she sometimes stroked(rub gently) his chin.She taught him to turn and turn as a response(counter-turn) and to stand.She taught him to touch her wave-like white skin.This seems to suggest the curve of the body of a young woman’s naked body.He adds that he used to nibble(gently bite) her hand when she offered it to him.Changing subject,he says that he was a rake and she was a sickle.This implies that she was so beautiful and he was so ugly,for the sickle has a pretty curved shape and the rake has an ugly craggy shape.He adds a second thought in a bracket that he and his beloved used to make a lot of ‘mowing’.or cutting the grass.This is one hint that has rather vulgar sexual implication in this poem.The second stanza has some sexual hints and implications,like turning and counterturning,and nibbling the hand.The rake and sickle may also imply to the shape of a woman bending over a man.

Stanza 3:The speaker mentions the subject of love for the first time in the third stanza.He says that love likes the gander(male duck) and adores(praises) the goose(female duck).The goose and gander may be the poet’s private symbols of sexual energy and desire.He now tells us that the lips of the woman used to come together to make a sexual expression and she made naughty(errant) signals to graps him.He says that she played it quick and played light and loose.This is the most explicit statement of the sexual activity he used to be involved in with her.He remembers looking at her from top to bottom.He says that his eyes were dazzled to see her knees.He also remembers that her body parts were very harmoniously built.But he adds one metaphysical kind of description in this stanza also:he says that her hip or her nose used to move or quiver.He adds a second thought in a bracket again:he says that she moved in circled which also moved.This probably means that he found it difficult to follow her continuous movements.

Stanza 4:In the last stanza,the speaker stops describing the woman and describes his present state.He uses the past tense in the first three stanzas,but he uses the present tense in the last stanza.The first three stanzas were mainly in the descriptive-narrrative mode of expression,but the fourth is in the meditative mode.The man now evaluates his present situation.He says that he will not care for anything.”Let seed be grass,and grass turn into hay”.This suggests that he is probably a farmer who has to take care of his farm,his grass and hay.He will not care whether things get ruined or destroyed.He is mad in love of her.He says that he has become a martyr of her motions.He thinks that freedom is not for knowing eternity and after-life.It means that life and freedom is for enjoying it.He emphasizes that he has cast a shadow upon him,a shadow as white as stone.This could be a challenge against the whiteness of religion.Like the old man lover of Donne’s “canonization”,this old man lover also refuses to lead a spiritual way of life,for his lost love.He does not want to count such an enigmatic and long thing as eternity in the limited days of life.Life is too short to be given for the contemplation of eternity.He concludes that his ‘old bones’ will live to learn the ‘wanton’ behavior.The word ‘wanton’ has two kinds of meanings,one is ‘whimsical and careless’,and the other is ‘immoral and lustful’.For this old crazy lover,even time will be measured in terms of how a woman’s body moves.He has lost the sense of time and other meanings and purpose of living.This last stanza suddenly shows that the old man lover has realized that the woman was not reliable and serious.As the poem suggests,she seems to have exploited the poor old fellow and left him.The word ‘wanton’ is suggestive of the possibility that she was not serious with the old man.So the picture of the old lover becomes as interesting as the image of the woman.Living without the woman of his desire,this old man is only making odd poetic descriptions of a woman whom he says he only ‘knew’ and goes on adding a narrative of his activities with her which we doubt is not very reliable.The title itself is one of the clues to this hitch in the poem.As a romantic poem,the passionate love of the old man,the emotive descriptions,the use of a vivid imagery,and the sensuousness are all very typical and interesting.