Paolo Dabandan
Essay 1 – Poetry
January 14, 2009
Love and relationships are a popular concept that runs through most aspects of our
lives, but more specifically, in poetry. When starting a new relationship, mixed emotions of
excitement and anxiety, and sometimes even fear consume us. People often find themselves
lost in the dark not knowing what’s to come next. Love and the idea of love is a scary thing,
therefore people often find comfort in the darkness. Two sonnets that share the theme of love
and the idea of finding comfort in the dark are, “First Poem for You” by Addonizio and “With
Eyes Closed” by Octavio Paz.
In the first sonnet entitled, “First Poem for You” written by Addonizio, is an example of a
Shakespearian sonnet. Having three stanzas consisting of four lines each, called a quatrain, and
at the end of a sonnet are two lines that rhyme. In the poem the author is unsure of the
permanence between her and her partner. The tattoos that her partner has are eternal and will
“last until you’re seared to ashes” never changing. In the line” whatever persists or turns to
pain between us, they will still be there”. This line shows how she seems more than happy to
know that the tattoos will last until death but scared to see if their relationship will eventually
become filled with pain and bitterness instead of the 'love' she is feeling right now. You can tell
that she is terrified of loving him because she isn’t sure of the outcome. Unlike the tattoos, the
love can change in time and are not permanent. Therefore the darkness acts as her comfort
zone, where she parts away from her insecurities, and the things she doesn’t know can’t hurt
her. The darkness consumes her and the fact that she loves him and makes things easier and far
less scary for her.
The second poem is entitled, “With Eyes Closed” by Octavio Paz and is written in free
verse. The darkness in this poem is created with the image of their eyes closed. The poem talks
about two people getting to know each other, and even though they don’t know each other,
they still go on and take that leap into the darkness. Like the last poem, they don’t know what
they’re getting into, but can only try and hope that things work. He constantly works on the
relationship which is symbolized as a stone in the poem. It is a something that needs to be
worked on. In the second stanza where he says “Night after night I carve you” signifies him
carving the stone like building a relationship. The way it is written, tends to show the story of
them getting together. The first stanza talks about them first meeting and him being entranced
by her glow telling her, “You light up within”, meaning to me the author has fallen in love even
thought he knows nothing about her. The second stanza goes on with them getting to know
each other with the last line of that stanza, “You are frank stone”, symbolizing them becoming
more familiar and much more comfortable with each other. In the last stanza, “We have
become enormous” symbolizes how their love has grown and become great all the while with
their eyes closed.
Both poems revolve around the idea of love and a growing relationship. With
relationships come a long line of insecurities and uncertainties. Both poems talk about people
who aren’t sure about how their relationships may end up. Both people find comfort in the
darkness and in some ways, even blinding themselves of some of the things that they think may
hurt them. That is exemplified in the first poem when she has sex in the dark. She is scared
because she is uncertain about how her and her boyfriend will end and how steady the feelings
may be, so she keeps to the dark to make herself less vulnerable by not letting everything about
her be known. However she is still happy because she lets the darkness consume the one thing
she thinks will hurt her which is the truth. Similarly the second poem talks about a couple who
are just starting out and are still in the dark trying to find their way around this relationship and
are getting to know each other more. Reading the poem the author repeats the line “with eyes
closed” in every stanza, this showing that even with them getting to know each other more
they still feel comfortable in the dark. The darkness keeps them from being too exposed and
vulnerable, while trying to build a healthy relationship.
Although having similar themes the protagonist or main characters in both stories have
different reasons for staying in the dark. In “First Poem for You”, the main character is scared of
the future and what in can bring. Taking in to reality that not all relationships last she hides in
the dark. Yet in the second poem “With Eyes Closed”, the main character is not scared of the
future but of what’s happening now in the relationship. He doesn’t let everything throughout
the relationship because he is scared of every step.
Many people share the common fear of the dark, but many people also use it to protect
themselves. The thing about the dark is that it tends to conceal our imperfections and comfort
our insecurities. In the poems you can see the both subjects use the dark to hide themselves
from reality. Many people in the world use the dark to cover themselves from getting hurt or
exposed. People hide family problems, personal problems, or anything they are ashamed of. In
the end what people don’t know can’t hurt them.
whatever persists or turns to pain between us, they will still be there