Response 10 - Close poetry reading of poem \"Wedding Ring\" PDF

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Close poetry reading of poem "Wedding Ring"...

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Response #10 Close Poetry Reading

My close poetry reading was for the poem “Wedding-Ring” by Denise Levertov. In terms of the structure and technical aspect of this poem, it is written in one stanza. There are definite line breaks the are ended with obvious punctuation, but if the author intended for there to be multiple stanzas, she failed. But then again there are no coincidences in literature, it was obviously intentional. But, I am not sure why she would do that. The lines themselves do not appear to have any pattern to how they are broken up. This poem does not have any rhyming. When reading it out loud, it reads as if there will be some rhyming but there actually isn’t any rhyming throughout the poem at all. I would say that in terms of metaphors and other figurative language, the most obvious is the lines, “My wedding-ring lies in a basket / as if at the bottom of a well”.

In terms of the thematic aspect of the poem “Wedding-Ring”, the tone of the poem seems pretty negative towards the idea of marriage. I see this when Levertov writes, “It can’t be given away / for fear of bringing ill-luck. / it can’t be sold / for the marriage was good in its own / time, though that time is gone”, this line tells me that maybe the wedding being discussed may be one of regret. Maybe there is even a hint of resentment in this particular marriage. Additionally, I think that the lines, “My wedding-ring likes in a basket / as if at the bottom of a well. / Nothing

will come to fish it back up / and onto my finger again” are showing me, as a reader, that the fact that their wedding ring is lost and can’t be retrieved, doesn’t seem to matter to the speaker all too much. All in all, this poem seems to be quite negative, specifically in terms of this specific marriage being discussed....