In his poem clenched soul, Pablo Neruda expresses his deepest emotion of grief, portraying despair and heartbreak following the loss of a loved one. Neruda faces intense thoughts of his past, where he expresses his feelings in his writing using techniques such as metaphorical language and similes. He is having delusional thoughts as he thinks that he and his loved one are walking together ‘’ hand in hand’’. He also uses the colour blue; ‘’blue night’’ & ‘’Blue sweater’’ to emphasize on the sorrow and inner emotion which he feels. He reminisces on past happy memories, however he describes these memories ‘’burned’’ like a ‘’coin in my hand.’’ This simile highlights the pain he feels as a result of her absence, and just the thought of these memories signifies the intense rawness which is inflicted upon him. Neruda in addition uses rhetorical questions where he seeks some answers in his emotions and wonders why she left him; perhaps because she found someone else in her life, ‘’Who else was there?’’
Shakespeare’s Sonnet 139, also emphasizes on heartache. However his mistress hasn’t left him, but humiliates him by cheating on him. The speaker displays a feeling of struggle and heartbreak as she has concealed him from the truth, surrounding the relationship with secrecy. ‘’Wound me...with thy tongue’’; here he explains that he would rather hear the truth coming from her instead of him having to confront her. He shows a sense of jealousy and does not like the fact that she is allowing herself to other men and the looks she gives other men, ‘’her pretty looks have been mine enemies.’’ In the second line, ‘’...thy unkindness lays upon my heart’’ he states that her betrayal and ‘’unkindness’’ is oppressing him causing him to feel heartache and emotional damage. The speaker also implies that she has ‘’power’’ over him, to an extent where she is powerful enough to control his emotions, let alone cheat on him and break his heart. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker expresses his misery as a battle which he faces against his inner emotions and his mistress. However he has already lost this battle as he says ‘’o’erpressed defence can bide?’’ Her dishonesty has overburdened him, and he feels as if he is losing this battle which he faces. At the end of the poem, the speaker indicates that he’s been put through a great deal of mental anguish and that he has already been killed inside, she might as well finish him off by confessing her deceitful actions to him.
Although the women in the poems act differently towards the speakers, the way they have shown their love to their men is still the same. Love is usually shown to give a happy and warm feeling giving a sense of value and emotional fulfillment, however the speaker in Sonnet 139 , and Nerdua portrays love negatively feeling agonized, and a sense of emotional discomfort. Furthermore this also shows that the outcomes of being in love are not always positive. They can also have distressing and painful effects as demonstrated by ‘Clenched Soul’ and ‘Sonnet 139’
tahsin.
Thanks Tahsin. Some good ideas here.
ReplyDeleteYour writing is clear and concise, demonstrating a sound understanding of the poetry. You are using technical vocabulary with more confidence and support your interpretations with short, apt quotations.
To improve: discuss how the texts are influenced by their contexts. For example, how are Shakespeare’s sonnets influenced by the time he lived in and ideas such as courtly love, the supremacy of the male sex, etc? Write a paragraph comparing how the two poems are influenced by their respective contexts.