After Effect

" Ever After" by Joyce Sutphen

vs.

"What I Want" by George Bilgere

These two poems are extremely unique because they both address love of past relationships. Both poems address the same topic but they both address the topic in different ways. Not only does both poems address past relationships but they also express what they need.

In both, the narrators do not dwell on the negative things, but in one the narrator tries to think of the situation over objectively, while the other has a revenge motif  This is where the sadness of both poem comes from. I feel as though both poem do not try sugar-coat anything, and you get this honest and frank picture of a couples who used to love each other but whose love for each other has changed along the way.

Both poems address the sadness of each narrator's life (clearly their failed marriages).

In the first poem " Ever After", the narrator is able to describe emotions which prose can not. You are able to capture the emotions a woman who has been divorced and left to find out who she truly is. The poem itself portrays that after her divorced or separation of the persons she speaks of she has some curiosity of who she is to this person now,than just an ex.

In the second poem, the narrator uses anaphora or the repetition of initial opening words or phrases, throughout the poem.  The central idea of "I Want" is repeated and adds a plaintive quality to the structure of the poem. The poem does not sound like whining.  Rather, the list of things the speaker wants goes from the lyrically precise things such as his description of talking with his aunt "In the humid summer twilight, as the hot/St Louis day expires upon the water/And the moth-eaten Chinese lanterns /Glow like faded Kodachrome."  

As in the first poem the narrator addresses some of the sadness of his life (clearly his failed marriage, his father's drinking, the loss of his aunt, as well as numerous other relationships that no longer exist.) I found that the poem mood was hopeful. The narrator wants both beautiful things, as well as revenge. 

I really enjoyed this poem because of the revenge motif..the repeated threats and wished horrors for his ex-wife and all his wants which some I consider needs. I also like how the poem doesn't just include bashing of his ex-wife. Rather, he takes this as a way to both reflect and state on what he does need.

These two poems are so different in their own way but both pass the same message. They both project what they need. The poems both do a good job of portraying very memorable items and image. For example in the first poem the narrator describe the moment where her ex and her were holding the knife that cut their wedding cake. Another example would be from the second poem where he tells about a couple on their paddle boat coming in from the lake. Both poems lack complete details of both narrators past relationships, but gives enough to show the sadness of their lives.