What Is This Thing Called Love by Kim Addonizio and Against Love Poetry by Eavan Boland are more different than they are similar. Both works differ in tone, in whom the poems are centered around, and in purpose. One reflects on the narrator’s troubled past and the other reflects on the past years of a loving marriage. While both works may have many contradictory aspects, they are alike in some ways. The two works are put side by side to show a couple different, yet important, versions of love.
The biggest contrast between What Is This Thing Called Love and Against Love Poetry is tone. In Addonizio’s book, the tone is very dark and gloomy, while Boland’s marriage sequence is much lighter. Both poets are blunt, but Addonizio is more blunt with …show more content…
In What Is This Thing Called Love, the majority of the poems are about the narrator. In Against Love Poetry, the poems are centered around the narrator and her husband, or they are centered around a different couple. Addonizio’s book focuses more on personal struggle and recovery, while Boland’s sequence is about the strength and connection that is found in a marriage.
Lastly, both works have tremendously contrasting purposes. Against Love Poetry is meant to educate readers on what real love is actually like. It is also meant to be a dedication to her husband. What Is This Thing Called Love just seems to question love: the love of God, self-love, love for others. In Against Love Poetry, love is about equality. In What Is This Thing Called Love, the narrator seemed to have the most agency in her relationships, or at least in her sexual …show more content…
Each narrator is happy to be where they are now. “Ceiling” by Addonizio, on pages 119 and 120, gives the reader a glimpse of what the narrator’s childhood was like. At the end of the poem, the speaker says, “but now I’m glad I’m here.” Before, she may have wanted to die, but now she is happy with her life. In “First Year” by Boland, on pages 12 and 13, the reader is given details of the couple’s first home and first year of marriage. At first, it was chaotic and awkward, but that first year strengthened their marriage. Also, both works have poems that divulge a fear of growing older. “Embers” by Boland, on page 10, the speaker is worried her husband may lose interest in her because she is ageing. In “The Work” by Addonizio, on pages 61 and 62, the narrator is almost terrified at thought of what her body is going through. She describes the process of growing older in disturbing and grotesque ways: “mottled roots of the cuspids exposed, the pocked / molars coming loose…” While one poem shows a fear of losing a significant other, the other seems to only show that the speaker is only afraid for
The biggest contrast between What Is This Thing Called Love and Against Love Poetry is tone. In Addonizio’s book, the tone is very dark and gloomy, while Boland’s marriage sequence is much lighter. Both poets are blunt, but Addonizio is more blunt with …show more content…
In What Is This Thing Called Love, the majority of the poems are about the narrator. In Against Love Poetry, the poems are centered around the narrator and her husband, or they are centered around a different couple. Addonizio’s book focuses more on personal struggle and recovery, while Boland’s sequence is about the strength and connection that is found in a marriage.
Lastly, both works have tremendously contrasting purposes. Against Love Poetry is meant to educate readers on what real love is actually like. It is also meant to be a dedication to her husband. What Is This Thing Called Love just seems to question love: the love of God, self-love, love for others. In Against Love Poetry, love is about equality. In What Is This Thing Called Love, the narrator seemed to have the most agency in her relationships, or at least in her sexual …show more content…
Each narrator is happy to be where they are now. “Ceiling” by Addonizio, on pages 119 and 120, gives the reader a glimpse of what the narrator’s childhood was like. At the end of the poem, the speaker says, “but now I’m glad I’m here.” Before, she may have wanted to die, but now she is happy with her life. In “First Year” by Boland, on pages 12 and 13, the reader is given details of the couple’s first home and first year of marriage. At first, it was chaotic and awkward, but that first year strengthened their marriage. Also, both works have poems that divulge a fear of growing older. “Embers” by Boland, on page 10, the speaker is worried her husband may lose interest in her because she is ageing. In “The Work” by Addonizio, on pages 61 and 62, the narrator is almost terrified at thought of what her body is going through. She describes the process of growing older in disturbing and grotesque ways: “mottled roots of the cuspids exposed, the pocked / molars coming loose…” While one poem shows a fear of losing a significant other, the other seems to only show that the speaker is only afraid for