Lament over Love (Marion & Léa)
The poem:
Part of Lament over Love,
it has the same name as the part.
The title:
« Lament over Love »
It’s composed of 3 words.
« Lament » : The narrator complains about Love and the pain that Love can provoke.alliteration in "l"
Time and Setting:
- We don’t really know the time because it’s not really important here. The poem gives a message universal which could be for every time and everybody.
- We don’t really know the setting too, but in the stanza 2 there is a reference to a river (maybe it’s the Mississippi such as the others poems of Langston Hughes).
Dramatic Situation:
It’s a first narrative person. The narrator is a woman ( we can see it at the last stanza : « my man » ). She gives advices about love at her daughter. She speaks about her love experience.
The Structure:
4 stanzas of 6 verses
- The fourth first verses of every stanzas have mixing rhymes with the same words, and the two last verses haven’t got rhymes.
- The poem is written in free verses.
- There are many repetitions of sentences such as « I hope my child’ll… »
Stanza 1:the exposition
She says her hopes for a child about love. She repeats the sentence « I hope my child’ll never love a man » to insist on the fact that she refuses her child to love somebody, because love is dangerous. There is a personnification of love : « Love can hurt you »(capital letter)
Rhyme: man/can repetition of "can"
Stanza 2:consequence
She tells a moment of her life when her lover has just left her. She went to the river to think about it. There is a repetition of « Ain’t goin’ there to swim » to show that she uses the river to console her.River is important in LH's poetry but here it's rather destructive (opposed to the negro speaks of rivers..)She's going to the river to commit suicide.River, water also have a connotation of purification, a renewal and rebirth ( baptisism)
idea of downwards movement "down": the fall of her soul and body "red": blood, veins running of blood in the veins like the water and the river
Stanza 3:
She gives her own definition of Love.
She compares Love to alcohol ( whiskey and wine ) because it’s an addiction and both a pleasure and something bad which can hurt.Something which takes control of your mind , feelings and judgement
anaphora: love alliteration in "w"
Stanza 4:
At the end of the poem there is a sort of insinuation because the narrator commits suicide because of Love. It’s a tragic situation.It insists in the fact that Love can be dangerous and bring death.
there's also a rising movement "goin' up", going to heaven? alliteration in "t" followed by THE fall in the last line "and let my fool self fall" (alliteration in "f")
the speaker , feeling dejected because her man has abandoned her, sings the blues and contemplates suicide.