Taylor Nugent
Jennings
Formalist Essay
1/26/2014
The poem that stuck with me the most this year is “Friendship After Love” by Ella
Wheeler Wilcox. Generally, this poem has a condescending tone with a hint of
compassion in certain areas. This is shown in the poems references to the good and
bad memories of a relationship.
The poem is set up in one big stanza with a bunch of substanzas incorporated into it to break it up. “Friendship After Love” has an A BB A rhyme
scheme, which I thought was really interesting and was something I had never seen in a
rhyme scheme before. Although some poems have phrases and sentences that rhyme
with each other, Ella Wheeler Wilcox wrote this poem in a manner that the last words of
every line rhymes with another (which it rhymes with depending on whether it’s an A or
a B line.) GIVEN WHEN YOU IDENTIFY RHYME SCHEME The rhyming words
throughout the poem include: ablaze, days; expires, fires; haze, gaze; tires, desires;
across, loss; care, air; heat, incomplete. ablaze and gives a tone of heat or romance.
Expires gives a sense of giving up or breaking up, and fires refers to the fire (or flame)
between two people. Haze is referring to a blur of events and a blurring of the
relationship that you thought you had with your significant other, while gaze could be
referring to two people staring at each other in love. Tires is used as a reference to a
relationship that has been stretched to it’s very end and the two people are barely
together, while desires is more compassionate, relating to the good part of the
relationship. Loss is referring to the feeling of emptiness after you break up and you feel
lost and don’t know what move to make next. Heat is referring to the passion and
chemistry you feel at the beginning of the relationship and what you think about when
you break up and what you miss the most after the relationship is over. Incomplete
refers to the way that you feel when the relationship has been over for awhile. Even
though you don’t wish the good times back, or the pain and anger of breaking up, you
still manage to feel incomplete without them and the relationship. GOOD
EXPLANATION OF END WORDS, NOW ADD IT UP AND SEE WHAT THESE
WORDS DO TO CONVEY THE OVERALL MEANING OF THE POEM.
The poem is a combination of both compassion and condescending because it
really goes into detail about both aspects of the relationship-- the good, passionate,
chemistry, and the heart-wrenching, heated arguments.
Finally, although the reader may think this a typical poem about a breakup
only talking about the pain and emptiness you feel AFTER a breakup, if the poem is
broken up into pieces and rhyme scheme is broken out of context, it’s easier to see that
it not only talks about the emotions of breaking up, but also the joy and chemistry felt in
the relationship.
TAYLOR: YOU HAVE IDENTIFIED A STRONG PURPOSE FOR YOUR ESSAY, ANALYZING
HOW THE WORDS USED IN END RHYME CONVEY THE MEANING OF THE POEM. NOW
YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THROUGH. EXPLAIN IN DEPTH EXACTLY how THESE WORDS
CONVEY THIS MEANING. THIS MEANS BLOWING UP YOUR LAST 2 PARAGRAPHS AND
REALLY EXPANDING YOUR WARRANT TO EXPLAIN how THESE WORDS ADD UP TO
WHAT THE POEM IS SAYING. A GOOD DRAFT WORTHY OF MORE REVISION.