Love's Deciet (Explication)
By: Shannon Crossley (Speaker: Big Rube)
Literal Meaning:
The speaker can't stand the pain and lonliness that love brings into his life, however he would rather love and let it die than to not love at all. In the last stanza, the speaker says, "Yet If I could do all over again I’d do it in the same skin I’m in
To lay down and let love die, just stay down and let love lie
No, no, no, no, not I
I’ll stay around and let love fly". This explains that he feels as if love wasn't a waste of time even though the relationship has its struggles.
To lay down and let love die, just stay down and let love lie
No, no, no, no, not I
I’ll stay around and let love fly". This explains that he feels as if love wasn't a waste of time even though the relationship has its struggles.
Situation:
The poem is about a couple that has relationship struggles and it depresses the speaker. In the beginning, he expresses how pleasure turns to pain in his relationship. He says that, "The seeds of these lies rooted so deeply they’ve cracked the foundation of what we once shared.". This reveals that the foundation of their love was once strong and stable but as time moved on and more lies were told, the foundation was cracked. The speaker is talking to their ex because in the text, they say "My loneliness like night air; invisible to the eye obvious to the touch, in its cold uncomfortableness
Yet If I could do all over again I’d do it in the same skin I’m in
To lay down and let love die, just stay down and let love lie...", thus proving that this relationship happened in the past. Due to words like deceit, darkness, chaotic, loneliness, etc, it can be predicted that the speaker is unhappy. The tone of the poem is very intense and passionate. The speaker seems to be in tune with their feelings. The mood is depressed because while reading this poem, a sad feeling is pressed upon the reader.
Yet If I could do all over again I’d do it in the same skin I’m in
To lay down and let love die, just stay down and let love lie...", thus proving that this relationship happened in the past. Due to words like deceit, darkness, chaotic, loneliness, etc, it can be predicted that the speaker is unhappy. The tone of the poem is very intense and passionate. The speaker seems to be in tune with their feelings. The mood is depressed because while reading this poem, a sad feeling is pressed upon the reader.
Structure:
This poem has 32 lines. Almost all of the sentences are complex sentences. This effects the poem's intensity because it makes the emotions seem stronger and more passionate. The poem is traditionally formed with a rhyme scheme, however it's irregular. There is internal rhyme throughout the lines, for example in the very first line it says,"Pleasure turns to the pain of lessons learned from the strain of the questions burned in my brain about whether love is humane in its touch." The underlined words create internal rhyme. The "ai" sound in "brain" and "humane" is also an example of assonance. When the speaker expresses that they don't regret falling in love, the poem develops. The entire poem is talking about the pain and depression that the speaker is feeling, so it is a plot twist when they say that they don't regret being in love. Almost all the way through the poem, the lines follow a regular noun-verb order. There is no punctuation until the last few lines when the poem is concluding. This represents that when the speaker was lonely, it was never-ending and continuous, whereas in the end, the speaker finally realizes that being in love was nothing to be ashamed of. The title," Love's Deceit" means that not every love is perfect, or as perfect as people glamorize it to be. Love is deceiving.
Language:
The language is mostly formal. There are hardly any casual words throughout the poem. Multiple types of figurative language is used in the poem. Imagery of a salmon swimming upstream in a current of tears made from the lies that were told. Theres a biblocial illusion of "demons overseeing lies". In the bible, demons and the devil are the most insidious liars and the speaker mentioning it means that the relationship was just packed full of lies. The imagery and other figurative language makes the poem more drastic and intense.
Musical Devices:
The rhyme scheme is regular for the most part. The assonance and figurative language of the poem empresses more emotions from the speaker.