Introduction
The poem “Magic of love” by Helen Farries is a simple and plain poem whose theme is love. The poem comprises of four stanzas each bearing four lines. The following is an explication of the poem.
Elaboration of the poem
In the first stanza, Farries begins by acknowledging the presence of a gift that can lighten up someone or “give a lift”. She goes on to state that, that gift which is love, is a blessing capable of bringing about happiness and comfort.
In the second stanza, Farries likens love to a star in the night stating that love can brighten someone’s faith. She also states that love is a gift that one can always give each day and it will always come back to the giver.
The third stanza states the importance of love. Farries states, “When love lights the way, there is joy in the day”. She adds that love gives people the ability to handle challenges and to go through struggles in life. In the third and fourth lines, the poet states that “Love is gentle and kind, and through love you will find, there’s an answer to your every prayer! (Farries)
In the last stanza, the poet makes a wish. She wishes that love may never depart from the readers’ loving hearts. She also wishes that the readers will treasure love. In conclusion she states that if the readers treasure love then all their dreams will come true.
Themes
The poem’s lone theme is love. Throughout the poem the poet is acknowledging the presence of love and appreciating its importance in human lives.
Imagery
There are several instances where imagery has been used. The imagery in the poem serves to make the poem interesting, memorable and to stress on the theme of love which the poet wants to pass across.
Notably there are several instances of rhyming. The first comes in the first line of the first stanza, “gift that can give you a lift” in which the words “gift and lift” rhyme beautifully. This line is catchy and urges the reader on. The second instance of rhyming is evident in the first line of the second stanza, “Like a star in the night, it can keep your faith bright”. Interestingly, the third instance of rhyming comes in the first line of the third stanza, “When love lights the way, there is joy in the day”. In all these instances the poet is passing on a message and expounding on the theme of love and also making the poem interesting for the readers.
There are also instances of repetition. In the first line of the first stanza, and in reference to love, the poet states, “It can comfort and bless, it can bring happiness” (Farries). The words “it can” have also been repeated in several other instances. In the second stanza, there is more repetition “Like a star in the nightlike the sun”. This presents a situation where love is being likened to several things. It maintains the momentum of the poem and draws interest from the readers.
There are also several instances of personalization. In the first line of the first stanza, the poet personalizes love by stating that it “can give a lift”. As such, the giving of a gift is personalized. In yet another instance, love is said to “comfort and bless”. The personification of love helps to actualize the meaning of love and also to make the poem more interesting.
Characterization
The poet has characterized love heavily throughout the poem. The poem describes love as having the ability to “comfort and bless”. This shows that love is a comforter. Love is also described as “bringing happiness”. As such love is portrayed as bearing a friendly character. It is also described as having the ability to “warm the heart” and further ahead the author states, “Love is gentle and kind”. This is the hallmark of the characterization of love and brings about the true “magic of love”. Indeed, it is the characters and the presentation of love that exudes its magic as presented by the poet.
The poet also gives love some mystery and mystic powers such as having come from heaven, “It’s a blessing from heaven above!” he also likens love to heavenly bodies such as the sun, and the stars, “Like a starlike the sun”. The mystique of these heavenly bodies is unknown and so is love. The sun and the star are powerful bodies whose energy and light sustains life and earth and all the life. The Sun rules during the day and is credited with sustaining life on earth. The stars are the “rulers” of the night and their illumination makes the sky beautiful and pleasant to view. By likening love to stars, it is depicted as an inevitable aspect that the world cannot do without. These bodies are metaphors to show the power of love.
The poem states that love can solve some problems. In the first stanza, the poet states “It can comfort and bless, it can bring happiness”. As such love is presented as a solution to human concerns and worries. “it can warm your hearts”. Further ahead, Harris states, “when love lights the day, there is joy in the day”. As such, love is given the attribute to make a path for people’s lives. “All troubles are lighter to bear”. The presence of love makes it possible for people who have and exude it to have the ability to weather problems and hardships in life. Love is also said to make all dreams come true, “You will find if you do, all your dreams will come true” in this case, the poet urges people to show love and treasure it so that their dreams will come true. This is an ultimate situation which all human beings desire and the fact love is depicted as the ultimate thing that will make dreams to come true exemplifies its importance and indeed it magic hence the title of the poem, “MAGIC OF LOVE”.
Conclusion
The poem, “Magic of Love” written by Helen Farris exemplifies love. The theme of the poem is love. There are several instances of imagery such as repetition in which the words “like” and “it can” are repeated to stress on the capabilities of love. There is plenty of rhyming as shown by the words, “gift and lift”, “night and bright” and lastly “way and day”. In addition there is personification of love which is said to “give gifts and comfort”. These instances of imagery help to bring out the theme of the poem and make it more interesting. Love is also given characters such as being “gentle and kind”. This is indeed the hallmark of characters given to love and which indeed make love capable of solving many human concerns and bring out the title of the poem, “MAGIC OF LOVE”.
Reference
Magic of Love by Helen Farris
