Symptoms of Love- Poem

Title: Symptoms of love

Author: Robert Graves

Speaker: The speaker of the poem is describing the effects of love on people, without any particular inclusion in the subject. The tone of the speaker is informative, yet the information is not told in an official manner but instead a tone that comes off as a little satirical and burlesque. The speaker gives the impression that although what he is narrating is true, it does not cease to be a ridiculous truth.

Structure: The piece has five stanzas, each made up of three lines. The stanzas have no preset structure, but all coincide in the fact that the last line is shorter than the rest and has a smaller syllable count. The poem has for sentences which are the four main ideas.

Theme: The poem discusses love, and the effect it has on people. Although there is truth, the truth seems to be ridiculed because the speaker appears to know that love is a feeling that puts even the most sensate of men and women to shame, and that it impairs the ability to reason skillfully. The poem also, at the end, touches on the subject of dignity, and how it is that we let one person make us stop reasoning and take a plunge.

Figures of speech: There are several literary devices and figures of speech in the piece. There is metaphor throughout, as love is being compared to things such as a headache, a blurry vision, the search for omens, and nightmares. There is also listing in the piece, which can be seen clearly when describing all the symptoms of love, and there is also sarcasm towards the end.

Symbolism: Most of the comparisons in the poem are symbolic. Love is, of course, not an actual headache or bad vision; it does not actually create omens or nightmares. These juxtapositions are used as symbols of the types of things people feel when they are in love. A headache is more like a plethora of problems and complications. The blurry vision refers to the decrease in reasoning and a more instinctive approach to matters of the heart. The search for omens and the nightmares refer to the hope of always hearing good news about relationships and the constant fears that things are not going so great. For the overall feel of the piece, symbolism is crucial and vital.