Welcome, aspiring literary explorers, to a journey into the heart of a truly remarkable poem. Today, we delve into Charlotte Mew’s poignant masterpiece, “A Quoi Bon Dire.” This poem offers a profound meditation on love, loss, and the enduring power of memory, inviting readers to consider how deeply personal our experiences of grief and connection can be. Prepare to uncover the layers of meaning, the subtle artistry, and the emotional resonance that make this work a timeless classic.
A Quoi Bon Dire
By Charlotte Mew
Seventeen years ago you said
Something that sounded like good bye;
And everybody thinks that you are dead,
But I.So I, as I grow stiff and cold
To this and that say good bye too;
And everybody sees that I am old
But you.And one fine morning in a sunny lane
Some boy and girl will meet and kiss and swear
That nobody can love their way again
While over there
You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.
A Quoi Bon Dire Summary
“A Quoi Bon Dire” is a deeply moving poem by Charlotte Mew that explores the enduring nature of love beyond death and the subjective experience of grief. The speaker reflects on a beloved person who passed away seventeen years prior. While the world believes this person is dead, the speaker maintains a profound, private connection, refusing to accept the finality of their absence. The poem contrasts the speaker’s own aging and physical decline with her perception of the beloved as eternally youthful. In its final stanza, the poem imagines a future where new lovers emerge, yet subtly asserts the timeless and superior bond shared between the speaker and her lost love. This “A Quoi Bon Dire” summary highlights the tension between public reality and private devotion.
Central Idea and Noteworthy Knowledge about “A Quoi Bon Dire”
- The Enduring Power of Love: The central idea of “A Quoi Bon Dire” is that true love transcends physical death and the passage of time. The speaker’s unwavering devotion illustrates how a profound connection can persist as a vibrant, living memory, defying external realities.
- Subjective Reality of Grief: The poem powerfully demonstrates how grief is a deeply personal and often isolated experience. The speaker’s perception of her beloved stands in stark contrast to “everybody’s” belief, emphasizing the unique and often solitary nature of profound loss.
- The Title’s Significance: The French title, “A Quoi Bon Dire,” translates to “What’s the use of saying?” or “Why bother saying?” This title is crucial, as it encapsulates the speaker’s internal world. It suggests that her enduring love and unique perception are so deeply personal that words are inadequate, or perhaps unnecessary, to explain them to a world that would not understand. Her love exists beyond the need for verbal articulation or external validation.
- Charlotte Mew’s Poetic Voice: Charlotte Mew, a significant early 20th-century poet, is renowned for her intense emotional depth, psychological insight, and distinctive voice. This poem exemplifies her ability to explore complex human emotions with both delicacy and power, making it a key work for understanding her contribution to literature.
A Quoi Bon Dire Analysis
A comprehensive “A Quoi Bon Dire” analysis reveals a masterclass in emotional expression and poetic craft. The poem’s structure, thematic depth, and skillful use of literary devices all contribute to its lasting impact.
Understanding the Poem’s Structure and Form
“A Quoi Bon Dire” is composed of three stanzas. The first two stanzas are quatrains, meaning they have four lines each, while the final stanza extends to five lines. This slight variation in the final stanza subtly expands the poem’s scope, moving from personal reflection to a broader, yet still intimate, vision of enduring love. The poem employs a consistent rhyme scheme, primarily ABBA in the first two stanzas (e.g., “said” and “dead” rhyme, “bye” and “I” rhyme), and EFFE G in the final stanza. This regular, yet not overly rigid, rhyme scheme provides a musicality and a sense of contained emotion, reinforcing the speaker’s quiet, internal conviction.
The meter, while not strictly uniform, generally leans towards a combination of tetrameter and trimeter, creating a rhythm that feels both conversational and reflective. For instance, the opening line, “Seventeen years ago you said,” establishes a measured pace, drawing the reader into the speaker’s contemplative state. This careful balance of structure and natural flow is a hallmark of Mew’s poetic style.
Exploring the Poem’s Themes
The Enduring Nature of Love and Memory
The central theme of “A Quoi Bon Dire” revolves around the profound and enduring power of love to transcend death. The speaker’s opening lines immediately establish this defiance of conventional grief:
Seventeen years ago you said
Something that sounded like good bye;
And everybody thinks that you are dead,
But I.
This stark contrast between “everybody thinks that you are dead” and the speaker’s emphatic “But I” sets the emotional core of the poem. It is not a denial of physical absence, but a powerful assertion of a spiritual or emotional presence that remains vibrant and real for the speaker. Her love is not diminished by time or death; instead, it becomes a private, cherished reality.
The Subjectivity of Time and Reality
The poem brilliantly explores the subjective nature of time and reality, particularly in the context of loss. The second stanza highlights this contrast:
So I, as I grow stiff and cold
To this and that say good bye too;
And everybody sees that I am old
But you.
Here, the speaker acknowledges her own aging and the physical decline that comes with it, describing herself as growing “stiff and cold.” Yet, she finds solace in the belief that her beloved, frozen in time by death, does not perceive her as old. This creates a poignant paradox: the world sees her aging, but her beloved, in her mind, sees her as she was, eternally connected to their shared past. This theme underscores how love can create its own timeless dimension, separate from the linear progression of the world.
Defiance of Societal Norms and Expectations
The speaker’s unwavering belief in her beloved’s continued presence, despite “everybody’s” conviction of his death, represents a quiet defiance. She does not seek to convince others; her truth is deeply personal and self-sufficient. This defiance extends to the final stanza, where she subtly asserts the superiority of her enduring love over new, passionate relationships:
And one fine morning in a sunny lane
Some boy and girl will meet and kiss and swear
That nobody can love their way again
While over there
You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.
Even amidst the blossoming of new love, the speaker’s connection remains, not as a memory to be mourned, but as a living, interacting presence. The image of the beloved smiling and the speaker tossing his hair suggests a playful, intimate interaction that transcends the physical, asserting a unique and timeless bond.
Analyzing Literary Devices in A Quoi Bon Dire
The poem’s emotional depth is significantly enhanced by Charlotte Mew’s skillful deployment of various literary devices and poetic devices.
Repetition and Parallelism
One of the most striking poetic devices is the use of repetition and parallelism in the lines “And everybody thinks that you are dead, / But I” and “And everybody sees that I am old / But you.” This structural repetition emphasizes the profound isolation of the speaker’s experience and the stark contrast between her internal reality and the external world’s perception. It highlights her unique, almost defiant, perspective on love and loss.
Imagery
Mew employs vivid imagery to convey emotional states and create sensory experiences. The phrase “stiff and cold” is a powerful image of physical aging and mortality, contrasting sharply with the implied eternal youth of the beloved. The “sunny lane” in the final stanza evokes a pastoral, idyllic setting, symbolizing new beginnings and youthful romance. However, this bright image is immediately juxtaposed with the speaker’s enduring connection, suggesting that her love exists in a realm beyond such fleeting earthly scenes. The final image of “You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair” is particularly evocative, conveying a sense of playful intimacy and continued interaction, despite the physical separation.
Enjambment
Enjambment, the continuation of a sentence or phrase from one line to the next without a pause, is used effectively to create a natural, conversational flow, mirroring the speaker’s stream of thought. For example, in the lines:
Seventeen years ago you said
Something that sounded like good bye;
The thought flows seamlessly, drawing the reader into the speaker’s reflective state. This technique prevents the poem from feeling rigid and instead imbues it with a sense of intimacy and immediacy.
Paradox
The entire poem is built upon a central paradox: the beloved is physically dead to the world, yet profoundly alive to the speaker. Similarly, the speaker is old to the world, but not to her beloved. This paradox underscores the poem’s exploration of subjective truth and the idea that love can create its own reality, defying logical constraints. It is a powerful “A Quoi Bon Dire” literary device that challenges conventional understanding of life and death.
Diction and Word Choice
Mew’s precise diction contributes significantly to the poem’s emotional impact. The word “sounded” in “Something that sounded like good bye” suggests an ambiguity, a lack of definitive closure that allows the speaker’s hope to persist. The verb “swear” used to describe the young lovers’ vows implies a passionate, perhaps fleeting, intensity, which is then subtly contrasted with the quiet, enduring nature of the speaker’s love. The simple, yet profound, verbs “smiled” and “tossed” in the final lines convey a deep, familiar connection that transcends the physical realm.
Quotes for Reflection from “A Quoi Bon Dire”
The poem offers many lines that resonate deeply, but the concluding stanza provides a particularly powerful encapsulation of its central message:
And one fine morning in a sunny lane
Some boy and girl will meet and kiss and swear
That nobody can love their way again
While over there
You will have smiled, I shall have tossed your hair.
This passage beautifully illustrates the poem’s core idea: that while new love will always emerge with its passionate declarations, the speaker’s unique and enduring connection with her beloved exists in a timeless space, untouched and perhaps even superior to the transient joys of the present. It is a testament to the profound and lasting impact of love that defies all boundaries.
Charlotte Mew’s “A Quoi Bon Dire” stands as a powerful testament to the human heart’s capacity for enduring love and memory. Through its poignant narrative, careful structure, and rich tapestry of literary devices, the poem invites readers to contemplate the deeply personal nature of grief and the ways in which love can transcend the physical world. This “A Quoi Bon Dire” analysis reveals a work that continues to resonate, offering solace and insight into the timeless mysteries of human connection.