‘Untitled’ is an honest poem in which a young boy tries to proclaim his love for a girl by branding a ring mark on their fingers. He could not express his true and meaningful feelings for this girl but found this was the only way to show his emotions, even though it meant hurting her. His words that define his hidden meaning for love all build up to this climax as to how he eventually lets this girl know how he feels, ‘asking you if you would marry me’. Unlike ‘Poem’ that just expresses how a man that did right was then put down by one thing that he did wrong. The poem comes across as though he is being remembered, like at his funeral or a memorial service. It is read as if a close friend or relative was reading it, the use of informal colloquialism suggests this too, ‘ten quid’, and it is clearly detailed and described, something that not many people could know unless they were close, ‘twice he lifted ten quid from her purse’. They clearly show likewise, that they, or someone else, are summing up the events in their life, which are to do with relationships. ‘Untitled’ is to do with love for a partner, and ‘Poem’ is to do with love for a relative.
The love doesn’t really play an important part in the poems but the relationships between people do. In ‘Untitled’ he can’t show his emotions about the relationship with words so he resorts to other measures like hurting the girl he ‘loved’, which is a typical trait of most love stories. Whereas in ‘Poem’ the man shows his love and kindness he had (the same in ‘Untitled’ but he expressed his feelings in different ways) towards his daughter, ‘always tucked his daughter in at night’, his wife, ‘praised his wife for every meal she made’, and his mum, ‘for his mum he hired a private nurse’. But the use of the abrupt, sharp end phrases, ‘slippered her the one time she lied’, still show that insecurity you get in relationships whether it be your daughter, son, wife, husband etc.
They both show regrets about what happened in the past between their relationships. Even though the relationships are based on different types of love, for example the love for a boyfriend or girlfriend is different to that for your mum or dad, they are still relationships that are what both the poems focus on. The use of symbolism in ‘Untitled’ using the ‘bunsen burner’ to brand the skin, represent the wedding ring, ‘which you couldn’t shake off’, because of course, you are not supposed to, because when you get married you are supposed to be together ‘for eternity’. This use of symbolism builds up to when he asks her to marry him representing his ideas that he wants a relationship with this girl. In ‘Poem’ the man appears ‘normal’ at the beginning of each stanza because his actions show what any father or husband would do. However his good and thoughtful actions are then put down and forgotten when something he has done wrongfully is mentioned. The use of symbolism is here also, because when the good things are forgotten it is though they are being buried just like he probably has too, but also the bad things get laid to rest too but they still get remembered.
The conclusions at the end of both stories show them or someone else, summing up their lives or past happenings with regret to mention as well. The person that reads ‘Poem’ does not give him enough praise for the good things he has done and judge him by his mistakes, ‘sometimes he did this, sometimes he did that’, even though the good things should overrule the bad things. The summarising of ‘Untitled’ is filled with regret and forgiveness to be asked for, and that it was his age that made him act the way he did. This shows that he had an excuse for his actions, whereas in ‘Poem’ he should have no excuse because he should have known what he was doing was wrong because he was older and wiser and he was married and had a daughter.
Both poems show that no one is perfect and that humans behave instinctively towards love and relationships and build on that to produce something more, i.e. the marriage proposal. And that humans thrive on love and attention and that need to be wanted, but when they do something good they are put down for something wrong they have done. It shows that life is life and it can be plain and boring thus making it predictable and the outcomes known.
