The poem The Lover by Don Patterson. :: English Literature

The poem The Lover by preceptor Patterson.The Lover - Don PattersonThe poem The Lover by Don Patterson explores traditional notions offate and romantic love. The title represents both of these ideas, asthe lover is a tarot motorcard used by fortune-tellers to tell you yourfate, and the lover has connotations of romance. He also uses vividimagery describes how a human is knocked down by a car, and againstthe odds, is brought back to life because of love.The poem has three stanzas of equal length and it has a half rhyme.The main theme is identified by how love is the strongest force on theplanet.Pattersonbegins by saying,Poor mortals with your horoscopes and blood tests.This is in such a tone, that it is suggesting that a higher being isspeaking, and through references later in the poem, it seems likelythat the narrator is a classic Greek god.Pattersonmentions horoscopes and blood tests. These ar bothmethods that humans probe in vain to predict the future. Blood testshave connotati ons of illness, which becomes relevant later in thepoem.Even if the plane lands you safely, why should you not return to yourhome in flames or ruins, your wife absconded, the children blind anddying in their cots?Patterson uses very emotive and powerful imagery to try to prove apoint that our small lives are irrelevant in the eyes of the world. Hethen summarises this stanza by saying,Only the lover walks upon the earth, careless of what fate preparesfor him.This quote suggests that the lover is immune to the day-to-day rigourousness of the world. His word choice also effectively displays idesof immortality. It tells us that love can protect you from the perilsof the world.In the second stanza, Pattersonintroduces the main incident in thepoem. A car knocks down the subject.So you step out at the lights, almost as if today you know you arethe special one. The women in the windshield lifting away her snappycry.This metaphor is very effective as it has clear connotations of timestandin g still and fear. Patterson is now writing on a personal basis,as in the first place he spoke generally.He continues his biblical references when he says, A white mask on astick. This imagery describes Atropos, the Greek god of closing(somewhat like Grim Reaper) When the time has come, they come to taketo take you away. He continues the theme of the underworld by saying,The sun leaves like a rocket the cast away goes out.Pattersons effective imagery has apocalyptic connotations. Thissimile compares the flash of a rocket to the brightness of the sun.