Poetry: Lyric and Narrative

ELL126: Poetry: Lyric and Narrative Essay
‘Why is your face so sad and glum, my dear,’
‘Why does your brow seem so furrowed, my dear?’
‘Spare yourself the details my love,
I fear your worry will reveal my truth.’

‘But what truth can bring such sadness, my dear,
What truth brings such a pale complexion, my dear?’
‘O save yourself from the burden my love,
I fear your worry will reveal my truth.’

‘Where is young Edward, Where is our son, my dear,
It is time he be fed, yet he has not shown, my dear?’
‘Please do not question, I could not answer, my love,
I fear your worry will reveal my truth.’

‘O Why is your blouse so speckled with blood, my dear,
What reason can cause such discomfort, my dear?’
‘O I have committed an unspeakable crime, my love,
I fear your worry will reveal my truth.’

‘What truth is it you speak of so often, my dear?
What crime is it you have executed, my dear?’
‘It is our son who no longer has mortality, my love,
I fear your worry will reveal my truth.’

‘How do you speak so coldly, my dear?
What have you done to my Edward, my dear?’
‘Our son no longer breathes our air, my love,
I warned you, and now your worry has revealed my truth.’

This poem is written in the form of a folk ballad in which a husband and wife engage in dialogue with a conversational tone, where it is revealed that the wife has killed their only son Edward. It is written in direct speech with two speakers. The effect I have aimed to create with this form is to distance the reader from any attachment or emotion towards the speakers in the same way that there is no connection emotionally between the two speakers of the poem. The structure of the poem is in six quatrains with a consistent AABC rhyme scheme throughout each stanza. The first two lines of each quatrain comprises of questions asked by the husband to the wife which are then unanswered directly and avoided in the third line. The final line of each quatrain forms a refrain throughout; which alters slightly in the last quatrain in order to satisfy the reader’s expectations and to bring the plot to a close. The central theme behind the poem is the truth of the situation which is evaded as the reader is never fully aware of what the wife has done. The progression of the narrative only occurs in the third line of each quatrain where the wife gives a very brief answer encouraged by the insistent questioning. My lexical choice when writing the poem was to use very little emotionally linked words especially in the third line as I wanted to minimise the extent of emotion inferred throughout. It is characteristic for a folk ballad to use this technique. The repetition of ‘my dear’ in the first and second lines was effective because it is the only genuine emotional connection between the characters apart from their son, who has been murdered by his mother. It is the circumstances of the poem which allows the distance between the emotional connections of the reader to the speakers in the poem. It is also important to mention that the repetition of these words gives the overall sentiment less meaning through the poem as it develops. I have also used sibilance in the first line of each quatrain, ‘so sad, so speckled, such sadness’, which allows the line to flow and create a tone that is relaxed. This again adds to the effect of draining the emotion and creating a darker mood. The alliteration in the refrain ‘worry will’ is made more dramatic by the final line, ‘your worry has now revealed my truth’ because it brings the plot to an end. The folk ballad in its traditional form uses techniques such as repetition, refrain and rhyme as defining characteristics of the genre. My poem adopts all of these features in a similar way to a poem which heavily influenced my theme. ‘Cruel Mother’ written by an anonymous author tells the story of a woman who bears children and murders them in the woods. Her children return in spirit to question her treatment of them. The difference between my own poem and this one is that I have avoided the supernatural element. My reason for this was that I thought it was more effective in my plot to leave the ending ambiguous with no sense of redemption. The husband asks all of the questions except from why she committed the crime of filicide, the act of a parent killing a child. This suggests that he feels more for her than he does his son. Overall the theme of this poem was directly influential to my writing, however another poem titled ‘Edward, Edward’ also gave me ideas. I took the idea of repeating phrases, although only chose in the end to repeat the last words of each line in the first two lines of each quatrain, ‘my dear.’ This enabled me to go into more depth with the exposition of the crime. The imagery created in the poem serves to build up an appearance that is reflected in the mood of the poem. The words used such as ‘pale’, ‘speckled with blood’ and ‘coldly’ develop the character of the wife and show her lack of morals and motives for killing her son. This is then contrasted with the sentiment inferred by calling him ‘my love.’ In effect the imagery is tragic evoking emotion from the reader. Primarily the folk ballad is a short and simple song that narrates a story through dialogue and action devoting minimal depth to characters and alluding to what has happened previously to it being written down. There is often very little attention to detail or setting. Characteristically, my poem does fit these guidelines in that there is no in depth explanation of what has took place. The characters are not defined or described in great detail although imagery has been used to allude to their appearances more so with the wife and her ‘blood speckled blouse’, pale complexion’ and ‘furrowed brow’. Yet even in this case the description relates only to the crime making this poem a tragic folk ballad.
Carrieanne Sixsmith
Bibliography: ‘Cruel mother’ (poem by an anonymous author) Folk Ballad
‘Edward Edward’ (anonymous author)

Bibliography: ‘Cruel mother’ (poem by an anonymous author) Folk Ballad ‘Edward Edward’ (anonymous author)