An Analysis Of After Love And Ephemera

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Love poems are usually what one thinks about when it comes to poetry. Usually the gushy, mushy, and all together very sappy kind. But what happens when the roses and violets wither and love ends? Many people do not dare think about life after love, because, for many, it is a painful thought. For some love fades slowly like a sunset and others end as quickly as lightning flashes. The topic of love and its flight from people’s lives is written in Sara Teasdale’s “After Love” and William Butler Yeats’ “Ephemera.” One thing is agreed, that all good things must come to an end, but how you take this ending reflects not only who you are as a character, but also the dynamic of your past relationship.

Though, both poems are about endings, we must start at the beginning. The title. Teasdale’s …show more content…

When love ends another can begin. This cycle is referenced in “After Love” when Teasdale compares herself, in lines 5-8, to the sea and tidal pools. The rise and fall of the sea creates the pools. Like the sea, the rise and fall of her love has made her like the pool, “listless” (Line 3). These pools are stationary, meaning she can do nothing to stop her love from ending; as well it shows that their is no emotion moving through her. The cycle of tides is like that of the cycle of seasons which is referred to in “Ephemera” The cycle of seasons, however, is much longer compared to the daily cycle of tides.The season mentioned, in line 22, is Autumn. Autumn is a symbol of harvest, reaping what one has sown. The couple is indeed reaping, looking nostalgically at their past love. The woman is shown to have “thrust dead leaves gathered in silence, dewy as her eyes, in bosom and hair” (lines 24-27). The leaves are memories that she is storing in her head and heart. She does not want her love to end. This is furthered by the poem’s structure as one continual paragraph. Where as in Teasdale’s her stanza’s are short and abrupt just like how her love has

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