Sunday, February 16, 2014
Poetry Close Reading Essay #1
No, love is not dead in this heart these eyes and this mouth
that announced the start of its own funeral.
Listen, I've had enough of the picturesque, the colorful
and the charming.
I love love, its tenderness and cruelty.
My love has only one name, one form.
Everything disappears. All mouths cling to that one.
My love has just one name, one form.
And if someday you remember
O you, form and name of my love,
One day on the ocean between America and Europe,
At the hour when the last ray of light sparkles
on the undulating surface of the waves, or else a stormy night
beneath a tree in the countryside or in a speeding car,
A spring morning on the boulevard Malesherbes,
A rainy day,
Just before going to bed at dawn,
Tell yourself-I order your familiar spirit-that
I alone loved you more and it's a shame
you didn't know it.
Tell yourself there's no need to regret: Ronsard
and Baudelaire before me sang the sorrows
of women old or dead who scorned the purest love.
When you are dead
You will still be lovely and desirable.
I'll be dead already, completely enclosed in your immortal body,
in your astounding image forever there among the endless marvels
of life and eternity, but if I'm alive,
The sound of your voice, your radiant looks,
Your smell the smell of your hair and many other things
will live on inside me.
In me and I'm not Ronsard or Baudelaire
I'm Robert Desnos who, because I knew
and loved you,
Is as good as they are.
I'm Robert Desnos who wants to be remembered
On this vile earth for nothing but his love of you.
A la mysterieuse
- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19461#sthash.o7hvmIdt.dpuf
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First of all, I wanted to tell you that the way you began your presentation (with the Valentine’s Day rose example) was not only engaging, but also helped me to better understand the content that you talked about in the 20 minutes to follow. Secondly, I would like to more specifically respond to the poem you talked about in your presentation, “No, Love is Not Dead” by Robert Desnos. After reading a little bit about Desnos, I discovered that he was a surrealist poet, fitting of the sensitivity and thoughtfulness expressed in this particular poem. I thought it was interesting, however, that after a period of time Desnos began to write in a more traditional voice (Encyclopedia Britannica).
ReplyDeleteThis poem related quite well to Julian Barnes’ short stories and novel, which you talked about in your presentation. It helped me to understand Love, etc. because in both cases, there was a deep longing for someone who did not reciprocate the same longing. Remembering that Barnes is a postmodern writer, and Desnos was a surrealist poet, I wondered if Barnes got his inspiration from surrealist writers such as Desnos, or whether the surrealist era never really ended. Today, writers can write about whatever they want with little to no restrictions on their work.
I just wanted to start off by saying that I absolutely loved the introduction to your presentation! It was very honest, funny, and relatable and definitely drew me into the main idea of your presentation. On your blog, I thought that the visuals could have used a little bit more color but I think that the literal depiction of a broken heart was the perfect symbol for your discussion about Julian Barnes writing about disconnect in love. When it came to your poem choices, I think that they were perfect for relating to the book Love etc., especially the poem “No Love is Not Dead” by Robert Desnos. You point out that Desnos used the personification of love to express to the reader the deep feelings that he has for a girl. By seeing love represented as a person, we can sympathize more with the speaker and his unrequited feelings. The syntax of short, staccato sentences to create a more serious tone was also something that is huge in the poem that you called out. I have never read Love etc. but the themes seem to be very similar from what I have read in your analysis and comparison of it to “No Love is Not Dead”.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading “No Love is Not Dead”, I completed the multiple choice questions that you created to go along with the poem. You did a great job of making them very similar to the practice AP questions for poetry that we have taken in class. I found the questions a little bit challenging and I had to reference the poem a couple of times when answering them but overall they were manageable. The only question that I really struggled with was the first one about the forms of poetry. This signaled to me that I need to go back and review the different types of poems before the exam!