The two poems by Anne Stevenson and Robert Bridges are
depictions of the Greek god of love, Eros. Known for his ability to enchant
others with true love, Eros has the uncanny misfortune of not being able to
find love himself. The two poems demonstrate this adversity in his life through
the differences in collaboration of tone shifts and rhyme scheme in relation to
the common theme of love and loss defined in the poems. Stevenson and Bridges
incorporate these techniques to emphasize the selflessness of Eros in providing
his services to a mercenary society.
Although used differently in each poem, the tone shifts are significant
indicators in portraying the common theme of the longing of love Eros feels. Stevenson’s
poem immediately sets an initial tone of disappointment and disgust. The descriptive
imagery of Eros invokes a contrast between the expectation and reality of the
appearance of love upon the speaker’s view of him as a “thug with a broken nose
and squinty eyes” (Stevenson). Bridges, however, sets a positive impression on
the reader with an initially dreamy and complementary tone. The speaker thinks
highly of Eros, describing him as an “idol” and “flower of lovely youth” with “flesh
so fair” (Bridges). The two poems continue to evolve inversely, with Stevenson
utilizing a change in perspective from the disgusted woman to Eros himself.
Utilizing this technique, Eros “cries” and defends his “long overuse”, blaming
it on the “blows [her] lust delivered” (Stevenson) and evoking a hurt and
distressed tone. In contrast, Bridges maintains a mellow and contemplative tone
in which the personification of time is used to show the complicated nature of
Eros through his enigmatic face showing an “unchristen’d smile” and “neither
love nor guile” (Bridges), thus concealing the Eros’ emotions rather than
explicitly expressing them. Stevenson ends her poem with zeugma portraying a
pointed tone, in which Eros bluntly blames the woman for his unappealing nature
through candid phrases such as “we slaves”, “your fate”, and “you create”
(Stevenson). Meanwhile, following another shift, Bridges ends the poem with a
pitiful and depressed tone in which the speaker makes a complete shift from
praising to pity and wholly understands why there is “nothing in [Eros’] face”
and “why is [Eros’] though” (Bridges). In contrast to Stevenson’s poem, Bridges
portrays Eros as the “victim” who is left in the “darkness” because “none… hath
cared to look upon [his] face” (Bridges).
The rhyme scheme of the poems is a mutual indicator of the
emotions each evokes. Although they are dissimilar from each other, the rhyme
scheme in both poem express the common theme of the love that Eros wishes to
indulge in and the loss that involuntarily swallows him. Stevenson’s poem
presents a XAXA XBXB rhyme scheme consistently to convey her message while
Bridges deviates from a traditional AABB rhyme scheme towards the last stanza’s
unconventional CCXXDDD rhyme scheme to convey the same attitude towards Eros.
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