THEME 6: Love and Relationships
Yevtushenko's "Colours" is a personal address to a loved one, expressing what his love is like: "My love is this fear . . Fear hems me in." The first encounter with the beloved has made life before seem useless; now she has put colour, meaning and love into existence.
A central theme is fear; that this "unexpected sunrise" of their love may finish. It is intensely exciting for its "revelations, tears . . and excitement". The experience is very precious but, he fears, its span will be limited. This thread runs through famous love poetry; readers will associate this theme with Marvell's famous line: "Time's winged chariot hurrying near." The poem reaches a clinching closure when these two major themes - colour and time - fuse in the metaphor that "the colours in my eyes will vanish/ when your face sets."
Yevtushenko's love poem has a universal appeal and yet, despite its free verse form, is surprisingly conventional in its treatment of love. In one demanding stanza, like one precious unbroken moment, the poet opens his heart in self awareness and adoration of the beloved. This is not a conversation between equals but an address to a higher power. It has the flavour of the poetry of Medieval Chivalry, as if to say that the beggar's misery is dissolved by the gaze of the life-giving beloved. The Biblical saying, "Life is changed not taken away" springs to mind.
The poem is quite successful as several devices sculpt the theme: the metaphor of love being "a slipshod watchman" aptly sums up the openness and vulnerability in the lovers; the visual and even aural image of "my crumpled life" to describe life before the love conveys the deflation and uselessness of a discarded paper bag that is meant to be full; the poet speaks in his own voice in first person pronouns since having experienced the joy of love he now has the authority to reflect on it. Pleasingly, any after-the-event perspective never interferes, as the poem focuses on the present timeless moment in the new-found empowering love.
More centrally, like the Elizabethan poets of courtly love, Yevtushenko explores a conceit about beginnings, that the onset of love became the "beginning in the coloured world, in which I had not yet had my beginnings." This conceit offers the paradox that life really began when love began, that significant beginnings are infinitely better than biological ones.
It could be asked whether the poem is as well titled as it might be. The title suggests the effects of love not its inner experience. Colouring reality is merely the outward, visible result of the love; yet in fact the poem concentrates on the very experience of that love, on its inner life. Love's new inner life throws life outside into relief as being less important. In new love, perceptions are changed as if seen through rose-coloured glasses, but ardent love brings more profound shifts in well-being, in values and in life. I felt "Colours" could have been better titled.
As the key poem on this Theme Study, "Colours" serves well to introduce the experience, power and fragility of new love. Love's new and exciting effects, profound depth of feeling, and that it is an all-consuming experience make it worth enshrining in poetry; Yevtushenko has done so excellently well. His subtly links imagery, metaphor, paradox and conceit to present a gem of a poem. When the poet describes love as being bound by time and fear of its own demise, he joins his conventional predecessors who used similar themes. To reveal some of its mystery and magic in 19 short lines is a clever achievement. "Colours" has all the quality of a well crafted argument.
©G. Smith August 1999 639 words
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adapted from an exam answer by Sam K 1999
Love has proved to be an exceptionally powerful human emotion, with great highs but also devastating consequences for those who lose it. In the "Love and Relationships" theme, poets write amplifying and highlighting the power of this emotion. Included in this anthology are several poems where the poets eulogise on the importance of love and its consequences. Two such poems which track the great heights of love are Yevgeny Yevtushenko's "Colours" and Judith Wright's "Woman to Man". Love's great consequences are eloquently represented by Gwen Harwood in "In the Park". These poets use many devices and techniques to portray the profound nature of love and also the devastating consequences of its loss.
These three poets embody their theme in mood. Through mood, poets comment on the intangible aspects of love, expressing its mystery in feelings where words fail. The mood in "Colours" is vibrant and exciting, representing Yevtushenko's appreciation of his new love. Also present is an undertone of fear, his fear of losing this precious love. His personal touch also gives the poem a great honesty. In contrast to the bright mood in "Colours", Wright has opted for a more reserved mood. Her poem gives a feminine perspective on love, and comments on its incredible preciousness. Hers is a poignant mood, offering a deep and memorable experience which heightens the reader's appreciation of love. Just as in "Colours", Wright speaks of her fear of losing her love: "Oh hold me, for I am afraid", Harwood constructs an even more reserved mood, and takes it a step further to speak of the great consequences of a love left neglected and uncared for. This poem conveys a very maudlin or elegiac mood, mourning the passing of love with an element of bitterness. Mood then conveys social comment in ways that words cannot.
A poem's structure can heighten our appreciation of its theme. In "Colours" Yevtushenko opts for a specific structure to convey his theme. The poem is 19 lines of unbroken free verse in quasi sonnet form, a conventional form. This one stanza is demanding of the reader, in a structure chosen to give him the experience of new love's intensity. In contrast, Wright chooses a more conventional form: four stanzas of five lines each, with end line rhymes on each of its first, fourth and fifth lines. Her rhymes are not comic however; they act to anchor the poem's chief ideas for us and echo the poet's depth of feeling about love's power.
These three poets also employ various poetic devices to amplify love's powerful effects. Diction and imagery can contribute significantly to a vivid representation of love. In "Colours", Yevtushenko uses the central metaphor of the sun shining to represent love as light and limited in time. Through the use of the visual and aural metaphor of "my crumpled life", Yevtushenko demonstrates the great importance and power his new love brings. He explores the paradox of his "beginnings in the coloured world, in which I had not yet my beginning" to comment on his true beginning being well after his biological beginning. This Elizabethan device of a conceit is used well to explore the tremendous value Yevtushenko places on his love. He closes by re-emphasising his fear of loving his love: "the colours of my eyes will vanish when your face has set." This powerful metaphor fuses together the two central ideas of time and colour into one dramatic comment on the importance of his love. Similarly, Wright places great emphasis on the importance of love, describing it as a seed which grows between the lovers. She extends this metaphor to develop the idea of love's passage and its fragility: "that grows the intricate and folded rose". Through the metaphor of love's blindness, both Wright and Yevtushenko offer comment on its power as an irresistible emotion. She paints a social comment on the blindness of love, likening it to "the blind headbutting at the dark" and he refers to love as "a slipshod watchman." Harwood uses the image of love consuming lovers to present a comment on its power to embitter: "they have eaten me alive." All three agree that love must be nourished or it grows destructive. Their devices quite well illustrate its powerful effects.
Love is a profound and powerful human emotion, with great highs and significant consequences for those who fail to nurture it. These poets writing on love and relationships highlight these aspects of love, through their use of mood, structure, diction and imagery. The three poems selected comment in different ways on the power of love. Yevtushenko exploits tight structure and vivid metaphors to create vibrant mood to comment on his new love, Wright uses a more a conventional structure to represent her reserved mood about her precious love, and Harwood creates a elegiac mood to comment on the consequences of lost love, love's hurts. These three were chosen to represent a range of social comments poets make on the great power of love and even on its associated consequences. # 858 words
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