Avital Horowitz Week 1 - Rachel McKibbens (Untitled poem)

One of Rachel McKibbens's many poems (which is unfortunately untitled) is meant to be a message to her daughters. Her poem is about love, but not just love alone, the last love. McKibbens poem lists the many requirements one must have in order to prove themselves to be a last love. 

McKibbens's skips over the first love, the second love, the third love, and all of the other loves in between and jumps straight to the last love. The last love is the most important, so that person must be someone special. They must be someone "whose love lifts its head to you despite its broken neck" and does all they can to make you feel loved regardless of their pain or suffering (Lines 3-4). McKibbens's uses the example of lifting a head despite its broken neck to highlight the selflessness the person must show to her daughters in order for them to truly be their last love. 

After analyzing the structure of the poem, I realized that the last half of stanza of this poem that with the same two words, last love. McKibbens uses the repetition of the two words, last love, to make it clear the she is speaking directly to her own last love. Almost every sentence that starts with the words, last love, ends up being an apology to McKibbens's last love. McKibbens's uses the words, last love, to start each of those sentences to not only signify that she is speaking to her last love, but also to underline the fact that she is apologizing.

The structure that the poet uses in this poem is purposeful to the reader because it separates the two points she is trying to make. The first part of the poem is McKibbens's message to her daughters about what to look for in a first love, while the second part of the poem is McKibbens's apologies to her first love. The poet uses this structure of the poem in order to highlight who she is speaking to in each part of the poem.

Personally, I really enjoyed this poem because it was not too difficult to understand and because it had a beautiful message to her daughters. This message was to pay close attention to who you love because they may end up being your last love. 

Comments

  1. mayaAugust 30, 2022 at 7:48 PM

    This seems like a very emotional poem. I appreciate the message from it and I like how it could be a reminder to value those you love.

    ReplyDelete

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