Friendship After Love
By: Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Alyssa Rivera
Friendship After Love By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires,
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he tires
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,
He beckons us to follow, and across
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.
After the Disaster By Abigail Deutsch
New York City, 2001
One night, not long after the disaster,
as our train was passing Astor,
the car door opened with a shudder
and a girl came flying down the aisle,
hair that looked to be all feathers
and a half-moon smile
making open air of our small car.
The crowd ignored her or they muttered
“Hey, excuse me” as they passed her
when the train had paused at Rector.
The specter crowed “Excuse me,” swiftly
turned, and ran back up the corridor,
then stopped for me.
We dove under the river.
She took my head between her fingers,
squeezing till the birds began to stir.
And then from out my eyes and ears
a flock came forth — I couldn’t think or hear
or breathe or see within that feather-world
so silently I thanked her.
Such things were common after the disaster.
Biographical information
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
• She once saw a women crying and it made her so depressed
causing her to write the poem solitude
hi
• Married Robert Wilcox, 1884
• They had one child, a son, who died shortly after birth
• Her husband Robert died in 1916
• They promised that when one of them died they would
return and communicate with the other
• After thirty years of marriage. She was overcome with grief
when she did not hear anything from Robert
Structure of the poem
Friendship After Love By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires,
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he tires
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,
He beckons us to follow, and across
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.
Wilcox uses a single
stanza and 14 lines for
this poem .
She has a definite rhyme
scheme; lines are
grouped into 5 rhyming
pairs.
This rhyme scheme
creates a lyric quality to
the poem that moves the
reader slower to the end
of the poem.
speaker of the poem
Friendship After Love By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires
In the intensity of its own fires,
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with haze.
So after Love has led us, till he tires
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires,
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze,
He beckons us to follow, and across
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care.
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air?
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss?
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat;
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete.
The speaker of the poem
seems to be a women going
through a heartbreak.
She is heartbroken and filled
with grief.
It seems as if the speaker
starts to overcome this heart
break by the end of the
poem.
Friendship After Love By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze A
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires B
In the intensity of its own fires, B
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days A
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with
haze. A
So after Love has led us, till he tires B
Of his own throes, and torments, and desires, B
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful gaze, A
He beckons us to follow, and across C
Cool verdant vales we wander free from care. D
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air? D
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss? C
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat; E
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete. E
Literary elements
End Rhyme – end of every line
rhymes throughout the entire
poem.
This rhyme scheme creates a
sonnet and a couplet
she rhymes every 1st and 4th
lines and 2nd and 3rd
Friendship After Love By Ella Wheeler Wilcox
After the fierce midsummer all ablaze A
Has burned itself to ashes, and expires B
In the intensity of its own fires, B
There come the mellow, mild, St. Martin days
A
Crowned with the calm of peace, but sad with
haze. A
So after Love has led us, till he tires B
Of his own throes, and torments, and
desires, B
Comes large-eyed friendship: with a restful
gaze, B
He beckons us to follow, and across C
Cool verdant vales we wander free from
care. D
Is it a touch of frost lies in the air? D
Why are we haunted with a sense of loss? C
We do not wish the pain back, or the heat; E
And yet, and yet, these days are incomplete. E
Literary elements
End Rhyme – end of every
line rhymes throughout the
entire poem.
Personification – Wilcox uses
personification to show how
she feels about something.
Sensory detail – Wilcox uses
sensory detail to interest
the reader and to help the
reader understand how she
is feeling.
Imagery
“After the fierce midsummer all ablaze Has
burned itself to ashes, and expires In the
intensity of its own fires”
Connection might be how she feels because of
her heart break.
“There come the mellow, mild St. Martian
days Crowned with the calm of peace, but
sad with haze”
Connection might be when she starts to
over come this heart break but she is still
sad about the subject.
Literal Meaning & Figurative Meaning
The literal meaning and figurative meaning are about the same it’s a women
overcoming a heart break leading to friendship. In the beginning the women
explains how her past relationship was burned to ashes as in its no more. She
starts to put herself back together but still filled with grief. Then there comes
friendship which leaves her asking why she still feels the sense of loss. They
both do not want each other back but her days are still incomplete.
Authors Purpose
The authors purpose is to show people that
sometimes its hard to become friends after a
relationship.
Theme
Even though she feels incomplete she doesn’t
want the days back.
Websites used
http://www.poetryoutloud.org/poem/180626
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ella_Wheeler_Wilcox