A Study of Themes and Techniques

Question: Describe about A Study of Themes and Techniques. Answer: Introduction: The theme of love has always remained one of the most cherished themes in the poetry of English literature. Love and its purity have been dealt with by different poems in different ages in English Literature in their own ways. Be it Elizabethan age, or Romantic age in English Literature, love poems have ruled these ages. William Shakespeares love sonnets addressed to her brunette beloved and to his unnamed friend illustrates the popularity of the theme of love in the English poetry during those ages. These love poems involve the theme of carpe diem, which says that one should make the most of time. Time wait for no one, not even for the lover and the beloved, thus , the moments of their precious love will slip away for which they have to extract the most and make the most of the moments they have with them (Thomas). On the other hand, the Romantic age, which comes many years after the age of Shakespeare and Donne, to some extent, brings back the theme of platonic love, imagination an d the pure love for Nature. It becomes evident that Love and the factors related to it have passed through many forms in the poetry of English Literature (McEllhenney). An Argumentative and Thematic analysis of the three poems- A Marriage, Remembering, and Preface to the Twenty Volume Suicide Note: Love which knows no barriers of any kind, true love which possesses the ability to surpass any kind of obstacles, although it is suppressed by the ever running moments of Time, gets illustrated in A Marriage by R.S. Thomas. The lyrics beautifully describe how death and rapid movement of time has not spared the beloved of the speaker. The speaker cherishes and remembers their young days when they met and felt each other in the presence of Natures beauty and blessings (Lewis). Nevertheless, the beloved of the speaker is now on the verge of death. Death has also been eulogised by being described as the partner of the speakers beloved who is calling her, Come, said death, /choosing her as his partner for /the last dance. The speaker wonderfully demonstrates in the poem that although Time and Death have overpowered their love by making them old, and separating his ladylove from him, the eternity of their love will remain unsoiled and rejuvenated on this earth, as this feeling is immortal. The marvellously composed poem, Remembering by R. S. Thomas makes an explicit expression of the theme of love, the love that pervades in ones day to day life. Here the poet deftly says that the lover should accompany his beloved who always remains dedicated to her lover and waits for him. The daily activities, which she performs for her love, must be valued and cared for by him. The poet insists the lover to express before her beloved his feelings, he may not be able to assist her in her daily household chores which she does for his sake to keep him happy, the lover should make her feel his love and pure feeling. He should make her understand that his love for her will always lurking forever, as the poet says, Your part then will be to take her hand in your / hand, proving to her/that, if blind, it is not dumb. He should pay utmost attention to her, not to let her feel severed from him (Leavis). Preface to the Twenty Volume Suicide Note, delineates love in completely different form. The speaker here shows his anxiety towards the monotony of life. The inability to take action, the passivity of drab and dull life, as suggested through the lines, Each time I go to walk the dog./Or the broad edged silly music the wind/Makes when I run for the bus... This poem clearly reflects that the speaker is in search for the meaning of life, he abhors the regularity and meaninglessness of life (Grierson and James Cruickshanks Smith). This uncertainty of life creates anxiety and doubt in the speaker. However, it is culminated when the speaker sees his daughter praying to God and his wish to relive and makes him love life once again. He attains the urge to live life and get generated towards the love for this wonderful gift of God, i.e. Life (Brombert). Thus, it becomes visible through the analyzation of the poems that although the three poems have dealt with the theme of love in differing ways, all of them emphasize the pure form love, be it the love of a lover for his beloved or the love of someone for enjoying the true essence of life (Nerad). Love, which is eternal and surpasses all the constraints of time, inactivity and death, is the pure form of love, which gives meaning to life and the reason to live (Hhn, Peter). Conclusion: Love which can hardly be expressed completely in words get beautiful expression in these works of the authors, who succeed in portraying the true love which always persists beyond any obstacle or condition and is able to give the solace which man gets only in the lap of Nature (Race) . Hence, the mention of the objects of and Nature and their beauty becomes evident in all the three poems. Purity constitutes Nature and love as pure as Nature can only be eternal. References: Brombert, Victor H.Novels of Flaubert: A Study of Themes and Techniques. Princeton University Press, 2015. Grierson, Herbert, and James Cruickshanks Smith.A critical history of English poetry. AC Black, 2014. Hhn, Peter. "The Problem of Fictionality and Factuality in Lyric Poetry."Narrative22.2 (2014): 155-168. Leavis, Frank Raymond.New bearings in English poetry. Faber Faber, 2015. Lewis, Clive Staples.The allegory of love. Cambridge University Press, 2013. McEllhenney, John G.A Masterwork of Doubting-Belief: RS Thomas and His Poetry. Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2013. Nerad, Julie Cary. "AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY."Ethnic American Literature: An Encyclopedia for Students: An Encyclopedia for Students(2015): 34. Race, William H.Classical Genres and English Poetry (Routledge Revivals). Routledge, 2014. Thomas, Ronald Stuart.Collected Poems: 1945-1990 RS Thomas: Collected Poems: RS Thomas. Hachette UK, 2012.