Unreconciled Relationships in Poetry

relationship is compared to a healing wound, which implies that when a person is hurt so badly in a relationship, it can never return to its former state.

Even after the wound has seemingly healed, a scar remains as a reminder of the sad memory, much like the sadness itself cannot be forgotten. This persistent damage has a profound and enduring impact, illustrated by the narrator's lover who compares it to the lasting effects of a storm's damage on a tree - once the destruction is wrought, it can never be fully repaired. Death is also a common theme in both poems. In Havisham, death serves to emphasize the intense animosity Havisham holds for her former fiance; in her own words, she even wishes him dead.

Using the metaphor that her veins become 'ropes', Havisham portrays her fierce desire for her ex-fiance to die by tightly holding her fists. This gives a morbid tone to her statement, as she goes on to admit that she could use these "ropes" to strangle and kill him. Havisham's violent feelings towards her ex-fiance are further emphasized by the fact that she "stabbed" the wedding cake after he jilted her. Though this may seem like an angry reaction on the surface, the violent connotations of the word "stabbed" suggest a deeper, more sinister hatred towards her ex-fiance. The wedding cake symbolizes the occasion on which she was jilted, making her actions even more emotionally charged.

The poem concludes with a clear expression of the protagonist's animosity towards her former fiance. Her desire for a "long slow honeymoon" with a "male corpse" suggests a violent wish to locate and murder

her ex-partner, utilizing his body for her own purposes. Comparatively, "Our Love Now" adopts death as a symbolic vehicle for highlighting the relationship's futility, with the narrator's partner describing skin as "bleached" following a burn - a figurative representation of their romantic bond.

The idea conveyed here is that the relationship between two individuals has lost all color and emotion, as described by the use of the word "bleached". This term implies a permanence to the loss, as objects that are bleached do not regain their original pigmentation. The metaphor of "the tree is forever dead" serves to strengthen this idea of irreversibility. Likewise, bleach is a powerful cleaning agent which eradicates all that it touches. This notion contributes to the overall impression that there is no semblance of vitality in their relationship. This is further reinforced by the use of the word "dead".

The poems suggest that the relationships are irreparable and hopeless. This is exemplified by the use of ‘forever’, which implies an eternal sense of certainty that there is no possibility of reconciliation. Furthermore, both poems follow a consistent structure; Havisham using regular quatrains and Our Love Now following a pattern of four rows of two stanzas with equal numbers of lines per stanza. Havisham’s structured format reinforces the idea that she is trapped within her irrational state and is unable to revert back to normalcy. The abandoned marriage has devastated her entire life.

Both Our Love Now and Havisham depict conflicts in romantic relationships through their use of literary devices. In Our Love Now, the structured format conveys the likelihood of an improving relationship as bleak due to the indifferent tone

of the narrator's lover. The poem highlights the theme that an excessive amount of pain and hurt in a relationship can result in extinguishing love permanently. Havisham, on the other hand, uses powerful oxymorons such as 'beloved sweetheart bastard' to effectively showcase the emotional turmoil the narrator experiences. This emphasizes why the event has such a profound effect on her, as she would not be hurt so deeply or hold onto the memory so strongly if she didn't love him. Ultimately, while both poems are effective in their portrayal of romantic conflicts, Havisham's use of oxymorons makes it my preferred choice.