Poetry Blog #3

For my two contrasting poems, I chose "True Love" by Robert Penn Warren and "One Art" by Elizabeth Bishop. An important part of contrasting two poems' perspectives is a thorough understanding of the authors' backgrounds. Robert Penn Warren was born in Kentucky, attended Vanderbilt University, and became quite popular during the 1940's and 1950's particularly in the South where most of his work was set. On the contrary, Elizabeth Bishop was raised in Massachusetts, attended Vassar College, and travelled the world writing poetry about her experiences.   "True Love," like most of Warren's early work, describes his first encounter with love as a young boy growing up in the South. After an initial encounter that Warren describes as making himself "feel dirty," the girl that the speaker views from a distance continually stays in his mind while he describes her personal toils at home with an alcoholic father and poor family. Eventually, the girl moves away but the significance of the first love stays with him forever. In "One Art," Elizabeth Bishop describes the importance of loving everyone in life instead of simply taking them for granted because of the fleetingness of life. Like Warren's speaker who never acted on his emotions, Bishop's speaker suffers the emotional pain of losing people she loved. Moreover, both speakers acknowledge the joy those individuals brought them during their time together regardless of the current status of the relationship. However, I would acknowledge that Warren's speaker seems to reflect on his first love as a seemingly distant past while Bishop emphasizes that the importance of relationships is eternal. As for my own personal beliefs when it comes to love and relationships, I side with Bishop. Every relationship should matter whether it may seem trivial or not...