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Mutual Forbearance Poem Analysis

Decent Essays

relationship, and for some, of life itself. It is in this widespread influence that the conceptions of love and marriage are such powerful topics in modern and classical literature, specifically poetry, the more lyrical structure providing a more aesthetic and artistic impression on the reader, usually the object of the poet’s desires. Yet, William Cowper’s poem Mutual Forbearance – Necessary to the Happiness of the Married State Cowper twists the expectations of marriage to something more unstable, more simulated, offering his own personal frustrations through a loose lyrical structure. And it is this poem that will be the focus of my essay.
The poem begins by describing the actions of the "lady [addressing]" her spouse, which provides …show more content…

Ultimately, the brevity of each couplets creates the need for emotion and tone to be compressed into these units, so each word needs to count, and Cowper certainly attracts the reader to the unfortunate situation of the lady by doing so. Moreover, the rhyme reinforces the metrical pattern of the poem, and being Iambic Tetrameter, work together to create a fast-moving pace that both exposes and symbolizes the frivolity of the marriage. Yet this dull room, and that dark closet,

Those hangings with their worn-out graces,

Long beards, long noses, and pale faces, (lines 4-6)

To maintain this metre, Cowper uses elisions in the form of ‘‘closet’’, ‘‘graces’’, and ‘‘faces’’, the pronunciation of the words changed to appear as if they have one instead of two syllables. This reinforces the rhyming pattern and makes sure the metre flows, which in this case is iambic tetrameter, consisting of four metrical feet, and an unaccented/accented iambic stress pattern.
The poem’s form is an intriguing measure of analysis, and Cowper adopts the form of a loose lyric poem, which works with the rhyming couplets to create an emotional response from the reader. Lyric poetry is a ‘‘formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person’’. This type of poetry was the dominant form of English poetry

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