Being married can be the highlight of some people’s lives, and it can be a very regrettable experience to others. For most people, being married means one of two things: either being stuck with one person for the rest of ones life, or getting to be with only one person for the rest of ones life. In Benjamin Franklin’s poem “Wedlock” he expresses the idea while one is married, to have pleasure with, to make the best of ones wife and not stab her in the back because most men only get one wife in a lifetime. Also that one must be absolutely sure before making such a big decision in life like marriage because once it is done, it’s results can be very rewarding, or very consequential. The last notion Franklin leaves with us from the poem is that a situation can be much improved simply by looking at it with a better perspective.
Franklin uses a very interesting title in “Wedlock” that, in a way, sums up the poem very nicely. Wedlock is obviously a combination of the two words wedding and lock and he chooses them because Franklin wants to create the image that marriage is similar to a prison, in which the man is locked in by his women and not able to do as he pleases. The first sentence starts out with “Wedlock, as old men note” (line 1), this indicates that this poem is written with much experience in the matter of marriage. Whether a man who has grown old has regrets about marriage or not they are much wiser because of it. Of course not all men regret their marriage and that is the true beauty of this poem is that there are two perspectives, two paths, within the same poem. These two paths are the two potential results of marriage, a blissful one and a miserable one. Of course there are many in between but marriages tend to lean one ...
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...is marriage, he had plenty of time to regret it. By saying “Some by experience find these words missplaced, Marry'd at leisure, they repent in haste.” (lines 7-8) Franklin is saying that the people who waited, the more experienced people who are together awhile before they are married, are quick to regret marriage because things were better and simpler the way they were before marriage.
Franklin puts forth many interesting ideas in the poem “Wedlock”, like to be absolutely sure before making life decisions, and to always try to look at any situation with the best perspective possible. The most important message Franklin portrays in the poem “Wedlock” is to enjoy their spouse because most people only get one shot, so Franklin wants them to make the best of it.
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin
http://www.poetry-archive.com/f/wedlock.html
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married. However, “for pragmatic reasons, the author’s conclusions favor marriage as the ultimate solution, but her pairings predict happiness” (“Austen, Jane”). Als...
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