The Mesh
By Kwesi Brew aka Osborne Henry
We have come to the cross-roads
And I must either leave or come with you.
I lingered over the choice
But in the darkness of my doubtsYou lifted the lamp of love
And I saw in your face
The road that I should take.
Summary of The Mesh
- Popularity of “The Mesh”: The poem “The Mesh” by Osborne Henry, a popular English poet, is a concise and crispy piece of poetic rendition. The poem first appeared in 1968 in his collection, The Shadows of Laughter. It proved an instant hit on account of its conciseness and universality of its thematic strand. The popularity of the poem rests on its terse expression of love presented through the metaphor of a road.
- “The Mesh” As a Representative of Love: The brief poetic form opens with a bang as the speaker tells that they have reached a critical point in their life. This critical point is either the speaker is going to leave his beloved or going to accompany her. It, however, is ambiguous whether the person in question is his beloved, or his friend, or somebody else. The point is he loves that person and has now come to a point where he has only one choice. Like all other persons, he is also in a dilemma and stops for a while to think over it. Then he sees that the person in question has a lamp in his hands in the light of which he could see the roads clearly and chooses one of them. Yet, it again becomes ambiguous which road he chooses.
- Major Themes in “The Mesh”: Love, ambiguity, and decision-making skills are three major thematic strands of the poem. The love in the poem is apparent in that the poet expresses it clearly that his beloved appears with a lamp that is the lamp of love. Therefore, it points to his choice. The decision-making is also based on this point of love-making. Despite all these clarifications and pointers, the ambiguity on the person that the speaker loves and the road he chooses continue to linger. He could not clarify it and perhaps this ambiguity is the reason for the popularity of the poem.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Mesh”
literary devices are tools essential for poetic or prose writing to make the text attractive and catchy for the readers. The analysis of these literary devices used in the poem as given below shows this fact.
- Assonance: Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds in the same line such as the sound of /o/ in “We have come to the cross-roads”, /e/ in “And I must either leave or come with you” and the sound of /a/ in “And I saw in your face.”
- Consonance: Consonance is the repetition of consonant sounds in the same line such as the sound of /c/ in “We have come to the cross-roads”, /d/ in “But in the darkness of my doubts” and the sound of /t/ in “The road that I should take.”
- 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;
You lifted the lamp of love
And I saw in your face
The road that I should take.
- Imagery: Imagery is used to make readers perceive things involving their five senses. The poem shows the use of imagery such as “We have come to the cross-roads”, “I lingered over the choice” and “And I saw in your face.”
- Metaphor: It is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between the objects that are different. The poem has used the lamp and the road as metaphors of love. Another good metaphor is “But in the darkness of my doubts” where thinking is compared to darkness.
- Symbolism: Symbolism is using symbols to signify ideas and qualities, giving them symbolic meanings that are different from the literal meanings. The poem shows the use of the lamp and roads as symbols of choice in life.
Analysis of Poetic Devices Used in “The Mesh”
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 rhyme scheme that means it is a free verse poem.
- Stanza: A stanza is a poetic form of some lines. There are two stanzas in the poem with each having a different number of verses or lines.
Quotes to be Used
These lines from “The Mesh” are relevant to use when talking about love.
“You lifted the lamp of love
And I saw in your face
The road that I should take.”
