How do these love poems, “Bleecker Street, Summer” and “The Fist,” compare with other love poems you’ve read?
The 2 poems by Derek Walcott “Bleecker Street, Summer” and “The Fist” each depict a different idea and theme. The way they portray this theme is similar and completely different from the love poems I have read. Walcott depicts themes of love in The Fist and a theme of loss in Bleecker Street, Summer. For example, the theme of love is usually associated with happy feelings and emotion but, Walcott develops this theme through pain and suffering. He is in love with the pain of love creating an ironic view of the happy thought. He does this with several forms of alliteration and onomatopoeia. This shows a different view of love.
I was surprised to read that you found the ideas from these two poems not only similar, but completely different than other love poems. If we talk about these two love poems in conjunction to each other, I thought that the euphoric and heart-wrenching theme is what defines most love poetry in the twentieth century. Take “The Lady with the Dog” by Chekhov and “When You are Old” by Yeats as the perfect example of what we read in class that depicts these two themes you brought up (happiness and pain & suffering). Chekhov portrayed longing and grief and happiness whilst Yeats showed pain and suffering of the one-sided love of the narrator.
I absolutely agree that Walcott has given a very different view on love than what is usually depicted. Love is always associated with happy, cheerful and light thoughts and ideas however Walcott completely changes that view. it is absolutely ironic that he is in love with the pain of love which is actually something that shouldn’t bring you pain but it is so refreshing to be put out there in the spectrum. Love is not always happy. It can be suffocating and very stressful at times. I feel like the poem “The Fist” is a perfect reflection of love whether it’s a love that has just started or a love that has progressed into a lifetime.