PREFACE
« What subjects do love poems deal with ? »
This is the question we asked ourselves before producing these works.
We deduced that love poems may talk about the beauty and qualities of the beloved, deplore the absence of the loved one, express suffering or nostalgy, recall memories of the past or even contain apologies towards someone.
Love poems are written in order to touch readers. Through a text, they can feel emotions, react to the beauty of the poem and understand its meaning. We hope that our poems will touch you as other authors did before us. We chose around twenty poems of young writers from 1èreL.
To prepare ourselves for this task, we studied several authors like Shakespeare with Sonnet XVIII. Then, we discovered authors of the 19th century : Walter Whitman who tried to dishearten his lover in a poem where he describes himself as totally different from his lover’s expectations. We also read a romantic poem written by Elizabeth Barret Browning in which she shows her infinite love. Her poem is intense and meaningful. We can feel her passion. Finally, we worked on a more recent poem of Derek Walcott, Love after love.
The poem which pleased me the most was I loved you first by Christina Rossetti. I care about the style of the poems I read. This one contains images (the dove) and a chiasmus, one of my favourite stylistic devices. What’s more, the chiasmus and the rhymes give a peculiar rhythm to the poem and I like it !
Writing a poem isn’t as simple as one can imagine. You have to respect stylistic rules. For example, you have to have a coherent stanza pattern, rhyme pattern or a regular rhythm. There are some traps to avoid. You have to pay attention to your lines, they shouldn’t be irregular. Then you can’t make forced rhymes. You should avoid strange similies. And finally, make sure that your lines aren’t cut regardless of syntax.
As a writer, talking about love isn’t easy. I really wanted to find the best and the right words. And it’s difficult because you have to be precise about what you want to talk about. Before writing my poem, I thought it was an impossible task because we are not professional poets and it is already hard to write a poem in French, our mother tongue. I also wondered if we had enough life-experience to write a poem on our own.
I began with loads of ideas in mind but only 3-4 lines without links. It was difficult to make a « complete » poem. Afterwards, I felt relieved. Only persons who have experienced writing could know what I mean.
I am proud of myself but I am still wondering if my poem is good enough for the others. It’s intimidating to think that people will read a tiny part of your experience and also because there are as many reactions as people in the world, so some will love it and some will think that it’s too silly.
All of our poems have their own style. They deal with different themes and reflect the author’s personality. We have put all of our hearts in these productions so I hope they will be up to your expectations.
Téa & Florine
Love poems
1ère L du lycée des Eaux claires