Call It A Good Marriage
By Robert Graves
Call it a good marriage –
For no one ever questioned
Her warmth, his masculinity,
Their interlocking views;
Except one stray graphologist
Who frowned in speculation
At her h’s and her s’s,
His p’s and w’s.Though few would still subscribe
To the monogamic axiom
That strife below the hip-bones
Need not estrange the heart,
Call it a good marriage:
More drew those two together,
Despite a lack of children,
Than pulled them apart.Call it a good marriage:
They never fought in public,
They acted circumspectly
And faced the world with pride;
Thus the hazards of their love-bed
Were none of our damned business –
Till as jurymen we sat on
Two deaths by suicide.
Summary of Call It A Good Marriage
- Popularity of “Call It A Good Marriage”: The poem ‘Call It A Good Marriage’ was written by Robert Graves, an English novelist, fiction writer, classicist, critic, and a great poet. It was published in 1962 in Collected Poems Cambridge Book of English Verse. The uniqueness of the poetic theme lies in its uncovering of the veneer of artificiality from the seemingly balanced and stabled married lives in the modern age.
- “Call It A Good Marriage” As a Representative of Outspokness against Artificiality: The poet opens with a refrain, ‘Call it a good marriage’, and continues with it until he spells out that both, the husband as well as the wife, have committed suicide. It is challenging to interpret from the graphologist’s logic that the wife used to pronounce h and s differently than that of her husband who used to pronounce p and w differently. Besides this difference, there has never been any strife between the couple. Although there have been no children in the couple’s life, they have been leading a good life for the public, a loving couple. However, they have committed suicide despite the fact that they lived with dignity and faced the world with pride.
- Major Themes in “Call It A Good Marriage”: Artificial relationships, public appearance, and children in married life are three major themes of the poem. The poem revolves around the artificiality that people keep in their relationships as well as appearances. It works well with the others but not with the better halves. In this case, both have always kept their personal strifes and personal vendettas out of the public eye to show the world that they are living happy life. Also, such artificial relationships come to the public eye after their end. The couple did not have a child and committed suicide though people assumed they had a good marriage.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Call It A Good Marriage
literary devices are strategies used to make poems meaningful. The analysis of these devices in the poem is given below.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /e/ in “For no one ever questioned” and the sound of /i/ in “Her warmth, his masculinity”.
- Alliteration: The poem shows the use of alliteration as the initial sounds consonants, such as /s/ in “still subscribe” or /w/ in “world with.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line, such as the sound of /s/, the sound of /r/, and the sound of /t/ in “Except one stray graphologist”; the sounds of /th/, /r, and /t/ in “More drew those two together” and the sound of /n/ and the sound of /r/ in “Were none of our damned business.”
- Enjambment: It is defined as a thought in verse that does not come to an end at a line break; rather, it rolls over to the next line. For example,
More drew those two together,
Despite a lack of children,
Than pulled them apart.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. The poem shows the use of imagery such as “That strife below the hip-bones”, “And faced the world with pride” and “Thus the hazards of their love-bed.”
- Paradox: The poem shows the use of paradoxes such as “her warmth, his masculinity” in the first stanza.
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different. The poem shows this marriage as a metaphor for the life of artificiality.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from literal meanings. The poem shows the use of the symbols of children as a bonding force.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in Call It A Good Marriage
Poetic and literary devices are the same, but a few are used only in poetry. Here is the analysis of some of the poetic devices used in this poem.
- Free Verse: The poem does not follow any specific rhyme scheme. Therefore, it is a free-verse poem.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There is a total of three stanzas, with each having eight lines.
- Repetition: The poem shows the use of a rhetorical device of repetition that stresses the main idea, such as ‘Call it a marriage’ in all three stanzas.
- Refrain: The poem also shows the use of “Call it a good marriage” as a refrain of the poem as it repeats itself several times in the poem.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from ‘Call It A Good Marriage’ are relevant to use when teaching about the good conjugal life.
Call it a good marriage:
They never fought in public,
They acted circumspectly
And faced the world with pride.