An Analysis of the Attitudes of Men in Eternal Devotion and How You Do It

The poems ‘Eternal Devotion’ and ‘How You Do It’ by Wt. Bakelar and Labrina respectively, talk about the different ways the men treat their spouses. Bakelar’s poem talks about a couple who have been married for a very long period of time and how the man basically worships her. In Labrina’s poem, the boy breaks his girlfriend’s heart and yet has no guilty conscience. Through the way they treat their partners, their contrasting attitudes stand out. In this essay, I am mainly going to analyse the attitudes of the men from the different speakers’ point of view.

The attitude of the man in ‘Eternal Devotion’ is conveyed from the third person point of view. In ‘How You Do It’, the heart broken girl is the speaker and occasionally she refers to herself in the third person. The use of both the first and third person viewpoint allows us to know what both characters are thinking.

‘Eternal Devotion’ is a six-stanza poem with three lines each and ‘How You Do It’ is an eighteen-lined poem in one stanza. The speaker in ‘Eternal Devotion’ is very appreciative of his wife. He is pleased when she gives him children Therefore, he takes care of them and “upheld his part”. Upholding his part means he does whatever he can do to help raise his children. Sometimes when some women give birth, their husbands or partners abandon or desert them expecting the women to take care of the children alone but this man does what he has to do as a responsible father. This makes me respect the man. However in “How You Do It’, the boy is extremely cruel to his girlfriend. He is the first boy she ever loved and yet he does not appreciate her love for him in any way. We see this through the apt diction that he “shredded” her heart and also “ripped” it. These a...

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... is devoted to his wife. He “could not” let her go shows that he is so fond and of her and devoted that even when she is dying he cannot leave her side. Also the words “forever” and “eternity” which generally mean timeless are used to show the extent of his love and this shows his complete fondness and attachment to his wife. He uses these words when he says that when he even dies, he would join her again and he will love her. This man is a complete gem of a husband.

Comparing these two poems, I believe that a man like the one portrayed in ‘Eternal Devotion’ is the best kind to get married to as he will love you endlessly. The one in ‘How You Do It’ is the kind who will just use you and when he is tired of you, he will throw you away like yesterday’s trash. This man is not worth loving.

I have enjoyed both poems immensely for both their content and style.