The black lace fan my mother gave me

This poem is about how a man gives a present to a woman he likes and is very descriptive of the place where this entire poem takes place. There is constantly some sort of link that the author makes to the place where this is happening and the objects that are involved, for example the gift.

I think the main recurring theme in this poem is about dealing with relationships. The poem talks about how a young man tries to woo this girl he fancies. The fact that he gives the girl a present his mother gave him shows how significant the role of the woman is. Obviously the fact that the black lace fan was given to him by his mother has a lot of importance and that is the reason why giving that to a girl seems like a big deal, because other than that its just another black lace fan, but it being one that was passed onto him by his mother shows its moral value.

In line 4 it says “…nights stormy” which suggests that the situation has been aggravated and is heating up due to the exchange of presents. In line 13 it says “…wild roses…” which is an interesting term to be used as ‘wild’ suggests the two people that are interested in each other. The idea of it being all wild shows how ‘blind’ the theory of love is. The ‘rose’ is used to indirectly symbolise attraction or love.

There is a reference where Eavan Bolland says “…he stays in the city for the summer…” I think this is a reference to a later part in the poem where a “blackbird” is being discussed. Birds usually fly south for the winter, and the write using this pun shows how opposite of the flying creatures the two characters are. This is interesting because it makes me reflect on the whole theme of “lovebirds”, and I can see this being related to that metaphorically. The couple are metaphoric representations of the lovebirds, except instead of the conventional flying south birds, they decide to stay in the city for the summer, which is true because that is what birds do.

The poem is equally divided up into 7 stanzas of 4 lines. The last stanza is very important as it is the only part in the poem where the significance of the title is related to the context of the poem. This stanza sums up the entire concept of the poem which is to do with the couple. I think the blackbird is a metaphoric representation of the girl to which the man seems to be attracted. I think this because of how the bird is described to spread its “flirtatious span” of wings.

Eavan Bolland talks about how the dusk is airless in line 22, I think this shows how things are changing and not happening how they’re supposed to happen. In this case it would be that because dusk is usually perceived to be windy and here it is quite the opposite.

Later on in the 6th stanza in line 24 it says “…you improvise…” which I think shows how relationships are make belief and are altered as you go through and are pretty much unpredictable. This poem seems to be an expression of how the poet chooses to display his feelings and interpretation of social life in general.

To summarise, I think that this poem is however not so clear in its intention and message to the reader and falls short since it is open to interpretation and therefore these things vary from one person to another depending on their approach to the poem and state of mind when dealing with it. The techniques used are not effective and personally I think this poem is rather dull in keeping the audience’s attention focused on one particular aspect. However, the structure and format of the poem is very effective and makes it easier to digest by the reader.