Comparison of Two Love Poems (Essay Sample)

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Comparison of two Love Poems
Both Ann Lauinger “Marvell Noir and Sharon Olds ‘last Night” poems express their love to their subjects, but with differing attitudes through choice of diction, theme, tone and use of literary devices. Both poems are written by female poets where they explore the theme of love. Both poems exhibit major similarities and differences. (Mays & Kelly). The two authors also use certain words to bring about mood and tone of love. Additionally, both authors use diction to manifest their perception of love and the general theme in all poems as well.
A profound similarity between the poems is the apparent commentary of love from a male speaker to a woman. In both poems, there is confession of deep love that is romantically expressed. Anne Lauinger’s “Marvell Noir” starts with beautiful lines from presumably a husband to his wife or a man to his lover “sweetheart, if we had the time, a week in bed would be no crime.” These first two lines set the mood of love in the poem where the man wishes he would be able to have time with his lover even if it is only for a week. He would generously show her love in abundance. Likewise, in Sharon Olds’ “Last Night” poem, the author sets the romantic mood with use of metaphors to set up the scene that was experienced between the two lovers. “Last Night The next day, I am almost afraid. Love? It was like dragonflies in the sun, 1000 degrees at noon, the ends of their abdomens stuck together, I close my eyes when I remember.” The quoted lines express a night filled with love action. The entire poem talks about pure love and what the experience of the two lovebirds is like. Both poems main theme is love, however love is expressed in different manners.
While both authors write about love in both poems, major differences can be noted when examining the way love is expressed. Lauinger’s “Marvell Noir” poem tone is uncaring, dark, ironic, and sometimes thoughtless. The poem is compelling and at the same time ironic, the speaker who is probably away on his duty writes to his wife communicating how much they would treat each other well and romantically. Then, the speaker writes that he is going to let the wife takes the fall for the crime he commits and when she is in jail he will visit him yearly but not worry about her anymore. “You will get twenty five-to life.” This suggests that the man is using love to set up the wife or lover to take the fall for the crime he has committed. Meanwhile, the other poem “Last Night” the author throughout shows love with no malice intended. The speaker only remembers about the perfect night they have had together. The tone does not change to indicate something different from love. Sharon Olds beautifully outlines enchanting love events that are very arousal to the reader. Therefore the two poems have different tones; this is achieved by use of different diction across. Choice of words might bring a different feeling when reading and analyzing the poems.