Preface
The theme is the underlying message that the writer of artist wants to convey. Themes can feature in poem , short story , a novel , or even a work of art.
It can be something as simple as love, or as something more complex, such as human versus nature. When you consider poetry and its attempts to convey something of the human experience, you can imagine the range of possible themes. But, let’s think about some of the most common that you are sure to come across.
Explore theme in poetry
Love
Death
Nature
Beauty
• love
Love is the most obvious. It can be love for another person, love for nature, or even love for oneself. The first on this list is the most obvious. Love for another can be seen within the work of countless poets since writing as a form of expression came into being. One writer who is known for crafting some of the most beautiful and memorable love poems in the English language is john Keats. He is known for works such as ‘endymion' and ‘bright star,woukf i were stedfast as thu art’. Or you might be familiar with lord byron, who wrote breathtaking poems such as ' she walk in beauty '.
But, let’s look at a lesser-known poet, Anne Bradstreet.One of Bradstreet best- known works. is a clear example of love as a theme, 'To my dear and loving husband ' . Here are the final four lines:
" Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persevere,
That when we live no more, we may live ever. "
In the twelve short lines of the poem, she uses the word “love” six times. She states that her relationship with her husband is more valuable than “whole mines of gold” or all the riches of the East. The poet expresses her devotion through smile and metaphor . The figurative language.shows true passion.
Here are a few more examples of poems that clearly have a theme of love.
• ' shall i compare thee to a summer's day' by william Shakespeare
• ' Annabel lee ' by Edger Allan poe
Death
Just like love, death is a very common theme in poetry. In Edger Allan poe‘s ‘lenore’, Poe combines the two. In this piece, a lover and a bystander discuss the life and death of a woman, Lenore. The lover berates the public for not appreciating her adequately and tries to express how important she was to him. Here is the last stanza of the poem that speaks about her death.
Avaunt! to-night my heart is light. No dirge will I upraise,
But waft the angel on her flight with a Pæan of old days!
Let no bell toll!–lest her sweet soul, amid its hallowed mirth,
Should catch the note, as it doth float up from the damnéd Earth.
To friends above, from fiends below, the indignant ghost is riven–
From Hell unto a high estate far up within the Heaven–
From grief and groan, to a golden throne, beside the King of Heaven.”
The first line of this section is a beautiful expression of love and care, even after one’s lover is gone. The speaker asks that the bells stop ringing as they might bother Lenore (now in the form of an angel) as she makes her way into heaven. Clearly, the love this speaker held for her is coming through, but the lines wouldn’t be necessary unless she had died so it is important to consider how both of these elements come together.
Here are a few examples of poems that have theme of death
- ' Death is nothing at all 'by Henry Scott Holland
- ' lady lazarus ' by sylvia plath
Conclusion
If you are interested in reading poetry it is likely because you enjoy the way writers manipulate words to a specific purpose. That purpose could be more ephemeral, such as tapping into an appreciation for the written word itself and the art one can create with it, or more straightforwardly emotional.Either way, without themes, most poems do not have a purpose.
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