The Kiss by Sara Teasdale Analysis

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Poetry Analysis Assignment
From the beginning of time, human beings have continued to use poetry as a means of self-expression. Through poetry, the world has been exposed to the deepest feelings and emotions of different people, which usually range from love, hatred, jealousy, nostalgia, regrets, and even revenge. In the present case, three such poems will be analyzed. These are Jenny Kissed Me by Leigh Hunt, The Kiss by Sara Teasdale, and The Kiss by the same poet Sara Teasdale. Thematically, the three short poems all speak about love with its pleasures and disappointments alike. In expressing the depths of this love, the poets have used kisses to show this. Despite speaking on the same theme, there are some differences too, which exist within the different poems.
In the first poem “Jenny Kissed Me” the poet presents a scenario in which the persona is very happy about the fact that the woman he adores kissed him. To him the significance of this kiss is too deep to an extent that it overshadows all his problems. Here the first kiss after a long time of the meeting has been given a great and magical importance and from the persona`s excitement, it seems to have lived to his expectations. The poem has a regular, external rhyme scheme of ABAB CDCD where in the first stanza the first and third line rhyme while the second and fourth lines rhyme. In the second stanza, the first and third lines rhyme while the second and fourth lines also rhyme. The poet has employed the use of these rhyming words in alternating lines to bring out the real emotions in the poem as well as giving it a certain kind of musicality (Gamber).The poem has also used some literary devices to drive its message home. For example, there is a metaphor “time, you thief, who loves to get sweets into your list…” (line 3). In this case, the persona compares time to a thief because it had robbed him of the chance to be with Jenny by exposing him to many misfortunes initially. Repetition is also used in the poem. The persona says “say I`m weary, say I`m sad, say that health and wealth have missed me, say I`m growing old.” (5-7). By using repetition, this has helped to emphasize the fact that in spite of all the challenges and misfortunes the persona had been exposed to, what really matters to him is the kiss by Jenny.
Sara Teasdale in her first poem on “The Kiss” also talks about love just like in the first case although in a slightly different dimension. In contrast to Leigh`s description of the experience of a first kiss, Sara in this poem tends to suggest that such kisses are always overrated. According to her, she sees nothing magical about a first kiss. In the first two lines of the first stanza, the persona is full of fantasies and dreams about her lover. She says, “I hoped that he would love me, And he has kissed my mouth.” (line 1-2). From these lines it`s quite obvious that the persona has great expectations from her love interest and hopes for a magical feeling. Howev...