The Clod And The Pebble Poem Analysis

Love can be represented in many shapes and forms. Two pieces from the collection of poems from “Songs Of Ourselves” have shown a unique way of illustrating love. “The Clod and the Pebble” and “Song” both send a message to be careful with love. This tells us that love can be tricky and complex. These two pieces of poetry also personify love by using human actions that can symbolize how humans react towards our emotions. One thing that they contrast in is that the author of “The Clod and the Pebble”, William Blake, shows both sides to love throughout his verse while Lady Mary Wroth, the author of “Song” depicts only the negative side. Despite their differences, poetry is made to show a wise opinion and perspective towards a theme or situation

Wroth does this by comparing love to a baby. At first glance, one would think that a baby could be a positive comparison towards love. Baby’s may be charming and sweet but they are also selfish, and vulnerable. A child’s vulnerability used in comparison to love can be viewed as encouraging because this way humans would control love, but this is meant to signify manipulation. Humans see something vulnerable and feel the need to help it develop even though it could cause trouble to us. This is the relationship Wroth tells us we have with love. At one point, the author of “The Clod and the Pebble” seems to agree but In the beginning his opinion portrays the complete opposite side of the argument. Blake uses a Hyperbolic to paint us a picture of both sides in extreme. When he first presents his viewpoint he tells us “Love seeketh not itself to please” stating love is generous and selfless. Blake basically says the contrary to what Wroth

“The Clod and the Pebble” utilizes the lump of clay and the pebble to dig deeper into what he intends to say. The clay and the pebble are personified when they sing their thoughts on the subject which is shown when Blake writes “So sung a little clod of clay.” The author also writes lines that clarify that they are merely objects. He does this when he writes how the clod is “Trodden with the cattle’s feet.” These two excerpts also help the author diminish the clay and its point of view on love. The clod of clay believes love gives you life, and relief. This causes the author to imply the clay is small and walked all over in the world because of the way it thinks. Meanwhile, the pebbles beliefs are quite different. The pebble says that love is mischievous and that it only exists to “bind another to its delight.” This is why the author uses a pebble to symbolize this outlook, pebbles are hard and