In spite of love being the notion as old as the world is and as clear as glass, many profound thinkers and philosophers have contemplated on this topic and expressed their views on subjects what love is and whether it is here to be or not. Although both ‘Love song’ by Joseph Brodsky and ‘Is Love Dead’ recited by Dedalus reflect on the theme of love, the differences in respect of structure, themes and stylistic devices make them two completely opposite poems.
The first thing to pay attention to is the formal organization of the verses. ‘Love Song’ is a strictly organized poem with four stanzas built with the help of end rhyme. There are no deviations and unexpected endings. ‘Is Love Dead’, on the contrary, is seen as a mixture of free verse: ‘It’s ruining the word ‘LOVE’ what it stands for – a connection’ and end rhyme: ‘today love is still around / hard to find but can be found’ (Is love dead?). Thus, although both ‘Love Song’ and ‘Is Love Dead?’ reflect on the contradictory character of love, thoughts of the authors are organized in different ways – in the first case it is a strictly built structure, whereas, in the second one, it bounces back and forth from one type of rhyme to another.
Themes are the next significant thing in both poems to reveal their similarities and differences. Brodsky pictured love not as an abstract notion but as his personal feeling to a concrete person. The title ‘Love Song’ already presupposes something meant for a single person, a love serenade in other words. The author is obviously torn apart by conflicting feelings. On the one hand, he proves his readiness to make sacrifices in the name of love as ‘if you were drowning, I’d come to the rescue’, to cherish ‘wrap you in my blanket and pour hot tea’, to become better and to change ‘if you were Chinese, I’d learn the languages’ (Brodsky lines 1, 2, 9). On the other, he desires to subdue his object of love, to keep at his side and never let go ‘if I were a sheriff, I’d arrest you and keep you in the cell under lock and key’ (Brodsky lines 3, 4). In other words, persona of the poem experiences elevated feelings and is ready to dissolve in and for his lover, however, at the same time he expects something to be given back – to be by his side and obey. The poem ‘Is Love Dead?’ brings about the problem of love as a general notion. The author concentrates on how love has altered during the years and how it is influenced by modern values. The title as in the first case gives the reader a possibility to make preliminary suppositions of the theme. The heading is a rhetorical question, and the poem itself is a philosophical reflection. The author starts with mentioning men and women as two conditions for love to exist and refers to biblical characters, our ancestors Eve and Adam, telling that ‘they ate some fruits and knocked some boots’ when the word L.O.V.E. was born (Is Love Dead?). The whole poem is built on the principle of contradictory comparison when what was before and what happens now is bound together: ‘As a child you are taught to love and respect. / When I’m grown – fuck the love, I’m drunk and I wanna have sex’ (Is Love Dead?). The thing is that the author strives to point out that time flies, values change showing that today there is no need to search for lifelong relationships if one-night interactions are accessible and most of the people do not see anything wrong with this.
Another theme revealed in the latter poem is the beauty of true love in its yearning for inner change ‘start with a person in your reflection’ as well as outer one, ‘you smile every time you hear their name’ (Is Love Dead?). In other words, a contradiction in the themes can be observed – the ugliness of violation with eternal values versus the beauty of genuine feeling. Thus, although both poems deal with the theme of love, ‘Love Song’ describes a personal feeling, whereas ‘Is Love Dead?’ reveals the problem of how the attitude to love changed in modern society. However, both agree that love changes personality for better.
Finally, a special attention to stylistic devices authors use for conveying their thoughts should be paid. In this respect, a noticeable difference is seen as the first verse is an example of the imagery poetry and the second one relies on antithesis as the main means of getting across their point. While reading Brodsky’s piece of poetry the reader gets an image of what is described, because the poet uses bright pictures: ‘wrap you in my blanket’, ‘keep you in the cell’, ‘puff your nose’; striking images of people as ‘sheriff’ or ‘sergeant’ who are easily distinguished between the crowd due to the uniform; the author even uses sounds to convey his idea: ‘high-pitched trill’ (Brodsky, lines 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 12). To put in briefly, Brodsky applies to the senses – sight, hearing, and touch. There are some examples of epithets as ‘hidden source’ or ‘high-pitched trill’ (Brodsky, lines 14, 6). ‘Is Love Dead?’ is based on the antithesis mainly and rhetorical questions. As it has been mentioned above, antithesis is observed even in given themes of beauty and ugliness. Love is taken as something like ‘hard to find but can’t be found’, true love is referred to ‘wrong or right words’, child is opposed to grown-up, dead love in one line and its resurrection in the next one (Is Love Dead?). A curious point to emphasize is the usage of slang words as ‘fuck’ and ‘have sex’ with a view to underline moral turpitude of the modern age. The author concludes his poem with an advice to ‘take a chance on love’ and see how great it is to be in love. Thus, in spite of the similar topic to reveal, the authors use different techniques to convey the idea. The first poem is perceived physically through the senses, whereas the second one relies on thought and its verbal form.
The analysed poems have been traced and compared in three aspects – structure, themes and stylistic devices. The authors highlighting the notion of love rested the readers’ attention at various problems. Diversity of techniques such as verse structure and stylistic means both authors use, prove that for every person love is unique – it belongs to everyone but shows up in different forms.
Works cited
Joseph Brodsky. ‘Love Song’. 08 March 2014.
<http://vebutarbutar.wordpress.com/2010/10/22/love-song-joseph-brodsky/>
‘Is Love Dead?’. 08 March 2014. < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jg7S82PIGZw>
