“ Man and Wife ” is a beautiful verse form about love and age. Robert Lowell uses stanza signifier, metaphoric linguistic communication and symbolism to stress the thought that relationships acquire old with age and one must look at the positive things in life to stress the positiveness of the relationship. The talker uses metaphoric linguistic communication to convey about a tone that is both beautiful and reminiscent of a life that Robert Lowell one time lived.
The verse form is split up into two stanzas. The first stanza has 22 lines, whereas the 2nd stanza has 6. The large difference in figure of lines most emphasizes the talkers newfound perspective the 2nd clip. When the talker says, “ Now twelve old ages subsequently, you turn your backaˆ¦ ” , it is clear that there is a drastic clip alteration which changes the position of the verse form drastically. Besides, in the first stanza the talker says, “ At last the trees are green on Marlborough street ” . This besides signals another passage but non every bit important as the last one which besides warranted a new stanza. It is evident that the poet wanted to divide the two stanzas up chronologically, seting important accent on the historical ( first ) stanza. In the 2nd subdivision the poet addresses his married woman straight. The phrase “ Oh my Petite, / clearest of all God ‘s animals, still all air and nervus ” sounds out of topographic point when taken off, but within the context it defines the talker ‘s wish to allow his married woman know that he still admires and loves her even if his love is impotent and destructive. Although she must move the function of Mother to him, he wants to believe of her as his “ Petite. ” Petite in this state of affairs means little and small. Therefore, he refers to her as lesser than him. And now he recalls the dark, so different from this “ homicidal ” one which he foremost remembers, when he foremost met her. Again the focal point is on puting. The scene is about the exact antonym opposed to that of Marlborough Street: it is the noisy Greenwich Village. The poet recalls his former ego, “ manus on glass / and bosom in oral cavity, ” This important differences in the two stanzas is highlighted thanks to Lowell ‘s clever creativeness in stanza signifier.
Robert Lowell ‘s usage of metaphoric linguistic communication besides plays a important function in assisting the reader understand his true, deathless love for his married woman. The “ rise Sun ” of line 2 becomes, in the altered head of the poet who fears passion and emotion, an Indian barbarian in “ war pigment ” who “ dyes us ruddy, ” the wordplay on “ dyes ” escalating the death-in-life being of the relationship that the poet urgently wants and desires. From the poet ‘s point of position merely inert object receive the Sun ‘s vitalizing heat: Dionysus is the Grecian God of crop and vino and besides symbolizes a new life and verve in relationships. The magnolia flowers, typically a symbol of the beauty of spring and a fresh beginning, are homicidal animals that set the forenoon air on fire. This new contrast dramas with the readers already preconceived impressions about what is a new beginning in a relationship and such. And eventually, the philippic of the poet ‘s married woman bombards his ear like an ocean moving ridge interrupting against a stone. This metaphor is a new contrast that we have n’t seen in this verse form earlier. Alternatively of turning a beautiful thing into a negative, rough one, Robert Lowell alternatively turns a rough event into a beautiful, warm one. It about gives the feeling that he is n’t listening to his married woman as she has her “ rough philippics ” . He besides gives the thought that this is typical of most hubbies by supplying the generic rubric, “ Man and Wife ” .
It is besides critically of import to detect that the rubric of the verse form plays a big function in analysing the verse form ‘s significance. Alternatively of an false rubric like “ Husband and Wife ” , Robert Lowell alternatively chooses to utilize “ Man and Wife ” . He so has us ask a inquiry such as: What is the difference between a hubby and a adult male? He answers this inquiry by giving us the metaphors in the verse form. By stating us that he things of a “ moving ridge breakage against a stone ” alternatively of the rough philippics of his married woman, it is clear that he is reasoning adult male should non listen to his married woman. These gender function issues appear rather often in his authorship.
In decision, Lowell does an first-class occupation of stressing the thought that love can acquire old with age, but by detecting the little things in life, he now is able to recognize that love that he one time had.
