Poetry Journal: XIII

This poem is about a relationship between a man and a woman. Although the man and women have had a physical relationship, they do not have a strong emotional relationship because the man has trouble fully expressing his feelings toward the woman. In addition, there is some kind of distance separating them that weakens their relationship. The man speaks of the woman possessively, as if he owns her. However, it is seen in more of a protective way than a controlling way, as he wants her to be happy and tries to cheer her up when she is sad. At the end of the poem, the man faces the consequences of his inability to share his feelings and ends up closing himself off from love.

The speaker of the poem is a man speaking to a woman from his past who he loved but lost. To me, it seems like he is speaking to her out of regret. The distant tone of the poem suggests that while the man knows it is too late to get the woman back, he still wants to attempt to tell her his feelings that he could never express before.

This poem was written to show how important communication is in a relationship. The speaker finds out that because he is unable to let the woman know how he feels about her early on, he is forced to deal with the consequences this brings - likely heartbreak. The last stanza of the poem hints that the speaker is now alone and closed off from love. Although in this poem the speaker tries to share his feelings, it is too late for him to win his love back. The poet is trying to emphasize that one must share their thoughts and feelings with the other person in a relationship soon, because if they do not, they will create distance between them and one person will eventually move on.

The poet uses the repetition of the word "something" in the fourth stanza to emphasize the speaker's inability to express himself. By using of this general word instead of naming the specific object at hand, the speaker is able to get by without fully communicating his thoughts. We see the speaker's possession of the woman through the terms he uses when addressing her: "sad and gentle doll", "my toy doll", "my sad tenderness". By calling her a doll and using the possessive pronoun "my", the speaker objectifies the woman and seems to take ownership of her. The simple yet intense verbs used at the end of the poem when the speaker has lost the woman convey a different mood than previous stanzas. In previous passages when the woman is still in his life, the speaker uses terms like "loved" and "dream" when speaking, but now that she is gone he resorts to terms like "burn" and "flee". We can see that the consequences he now faces that involve the loss of his loved one have changed him and his mindset.