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Matthew-Katsumi Maeda

Mrs. Feek

H World Lit

03 March 2019

Relationships Are Not Perfect

Romanticism is a literary movement from the late 18th century emphasizing inspiration,

subjectivity, and the primary of the individual. It was a reaction against the order and restrain of

classicism and neoclassicism and a rejection of Enlightenment. In Natasha Foster’s poem, “The

Lady Of The Lake,” she is using romanticism to get her emotions across to the reader. Just when

you think that you are in a loving relationship with your significant other it can end in an instant.

There is this woman who is born at a lake who is also in a relationship with a man she meets at

the lake. She is love’s him with all her heart. Everything in their relationship is going great. At

least, that’s her initial thought. She is finding out that the man is betraying her trust and is

committing adultery with another woman. Finding that out breaks her heart and turns her into a

cold-hearted person, making the lake that means so much to her and gives her so much happiness

into something that just the thought of it hurt her. The speaker expresses how her emotions
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change throughout the poem while also using metaphors and imagery to tackle the romantic

theme of humans’ relationship with nature.

The speaker uses metaphors throughout the poem to help address the theme of humans’

relationship with nature. Fire is being used in a literal way, “‘Twas her soul that he set on fire,”

(line 6), to show to the reader how passionate she is in the relationship. ​The feeling of

overwhelming grief also impacts her emotions​,​ “‘Twas her heart that he did break,” (13). It is a

metaphor because you cannot physically break your heart. This figure of speech gets the message

across that the speaker was hurt so bad by the man that it was as if her heart had shattered into a

million pieces, and gives the impression that she feels like dying. Foster is using the term

“freeze” to express how her emotions turned from this warm loving feeling to being as cold as

ice, “‘Twas her fiery soul that he did freeze,” (14). Souls cannot freeze, meaning that the man is

making her regret something so bad that she feels no emotions at all and her heart feels numb.

The metaphors that Foster uses as well as the imagery used are important points to connecting

the story to the theme by further explaining a story about a relationship between a man and a

woman and how the lake had meant a lot to them.

Natasha Foster uses imagery to paint a picture in the mind of the reader of what she is

saying and what her overall message is. The relationship that she has with the “lake where she

was born,” (1) is important because the lake already symbolizes something for Foster as it is

where she is born and it is also the place where she meets the man so it is very symbolic to her.
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The reader is able to picture a baby growing up to then meeting their significant other at the same

place. The reader feels connected to the poem and the story the speaker is telling by making a

connection with the people that has experience with being heartbroken, “‘Twas her soul that was

carried to/ Heaven by the breeze,” (15-16). People that had the unfortunate chance of

experiencing a relationship ending on unexpecting circumstances can picture what Foster is

trying to portray. Foster is portraying that her soul is dead by the actions of the man and that it is

going to heaven. She feels heartbroken after she finds out that the man is cheating on her, “‘Twas

her heart that he did break/ ‘Twas her fiery soul that he did freeze,” (13-14). The reader is shown

exactly what the speaker is feeling which is her being heartbroken with the fact that she found

out her significant other cheated on her with the woman from the other castle who often visited.

It turns her once warm, passionate loving spirit into this cold-hearted woman. What the man did

to the woman turned her into someone that no one would want to be around and killed all

meaning that the lake had for her. The imagery is important to the theme with each stanza there

is a new image that comes to mind and the language she uses in the last stanza expresses her

emotions which paints the picture that the lake is losing meaning to her.

The speaker expresses how her emotions change throughout the poem by changing her

mood in each stanza. The first stanza opens with an introduction to the woman and her

relationship with the man and how the lake brings so many good memories to her. The mood

then shifts to a less happy tone, “‘Twas he who she proved a liar,” (7). There is a slight shift in

the mood from happiness in a relationship to anger and sadness. The second stanza then

transitions to her remembering what the man actually does. She is completely devastate with the

remembrance of her significant other cheating on her with the more rich and powerful woman
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from the castle across the way. The man only wants the money and power his mistress can offer

him instead of the love that Foster already gives him. The anger from the last stanza is

disappearing to this very depressing mood in the third stanza that makes the reader feel sad and

bad for the speaker. The last shift is when it transitions from the depression to the death where

the reader can interpret that the speaker has killed herself over the whole situation with the

mention of Heaven and how the lake has no meaning for her now. The whole poem is a

rollercoaster of emotions that leaves little to no room for the reader to not understand what the

speaker is saying. The transitions are important because it conveys how her feelings and

emotions change from very loving to nothing.

When someone has a bad memory of an event, all feelings tend to disappear and die off.

That is the case with Natasha Foster’s poem, “The Lady Of The Lake.” With Foster’s use of

figurative language and use of transitions to convey the active theme of humans’ relationship

with nature in her poem, it leaves the reader with a bittersweet feeling. Romanticism comes in to

play by acting as a template for Foster as she was communicating to the audience her emotions

and how they can rapidly change. The lake to Foster is nothing more than just a body of water to

her at this point as all meaning is ruined from the man. Their relationship was nothing more than

the physical needs for the man whereas the Foster is emotionally involved and is actually loving

to him and cares for him.

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Works Cited

Foster, Natasha. “The Lady Of The Lake.” ​PoemHunter.com​, Natasha Foster, 2 June 2014,

www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-lady-of-the-lake-4/​.