Ryanna Glynn

Love can be defined as a strong feeling of affection. There are many different types of love,
whether between two humans or even a human and a non-human. Some types of love are love for
one’s country or patriotism, love for God or Agape love, romantic love, and love between parents and
offspring or familiar love.

In the poems “A little boy crying” and “It is the constant image of your face” the theme of love is
evoked. With the use of different poetic devices and techniques, each poet is able to convey the
different types of love.

In the poem “A little boy crying” written by Mervyn Morris, the poet deals with the familiar love
that exists between the father and his son. In this poem, the poet describes the father’s battle with
fighting the regret he feels for slapping his son because of his unconditional love that he has for him. It
is seen that the father punished his son not out of anger but out of love for him. As a father, he wants
his son to go in the right path. After punishing his son, the father felt guilty towards his actions, and he
felt hurt as his son was hurting. The hyperbole “the hurt your easy tears can scald me with”, describes
the way in which the father was feeling. The father knew that his son would not understand that what
he did was not out of spite and hatred but out of the love he has for him. However, in the poem “It is
the constant image of your face” written by Dennis Brutus, the poet deals with both patriotism and
romantic love as the persona tries to choose between his country and his significant other. The persona
describes how far he is willing to go for the ones he love. The persona battles an internal conflict as he
tries to choose between his lover whose face he sees constantly in his mind with eyes that accuses him
of breaking her heart, and his country that he is willing to fight for. The persona expresses his love for
both his country and his lover, and hopes that they would pardon him for sharing his love between
them.

In the poem “A little boy crying”, a poetic device used by the poet to present the theme of love
to the readers was visual imagery. The lines “this fierce man longs to lift you, curb your sadness with
piggy-back or bull fight or anything”, are used by the persona to describe all the happy things he wants
to do with his son in order to comfort him and make his tears go away. This shows that despite him
acting fierce and tough, there is still a soft spot in his heart for his son. His intentions were never to hurt
his son but to teach him a lesson. His son’s sadness caused the father to feel remorseful and wanting to
take back what he did to his son. The father understands that his son will not understand that his actions
are out of love rather than pure anger, and hence, he wants to show his son how much he actually loves
him by playing his favorite games of piggy back and bull fight with him. On the other hand, in the poem
Ryanna Glynn

“It is the constant image of your face”, a poetic device used by the poet to present the theme of love
was personification. The personification “I confess without remorse or shame my still-fresh treason to
my country and hope that she, my other, dearest love will pardon freely”, is saying that he hopes that
his country, his dearest love, will forgive him of the treasonous act of loving someone else. This
highlights the persona patriotism and relationship between him and his country. This shows his
overwhelming love for his country. The persona is saying that he cannot stop the love he also has for his
country. He loves his country more than all his other loves including his significant other. However, his
lover’s beauty and protection caught his attention and have made him turned against his love for his
country and made him choose her unwillingly. The persona describes his regret and guilt as he describes
his actions as “still-fresh treason”. He pleads and hopes that his dearest love, his country, will forgive
him for his choice. In the end, he is still confused as to whether both of his loves are a match or one is
dearer to his heart than the other.

The poem “it is the constant image of your face” is more appealing poem than the poem the
little boy crying”. The poem “it is a constant image of your face” deals with the challenges that many
persons face as they battle internally to choose between two things they love. This poem shows a deep
sense of self conflict. It shows the guilt and pain of wanting to please both love interest but only being
able to please one and how it affects the other. It describes a deeper sense of how ones consciousness
feels like knives of accusations cutting into it and how treacherous the heart feels when one has caused
a heartbreak of one if it’s love interest. This poem experiences a deep feeling of guilt and remorse that
plague the thoughts of someone who is being torn between his two love ones. Also, this poem deals
with great patriotism and shows the extent to which one can love one’s country above everything else.
However, in the poem “little boy crying”, it deals with the guilt and pain parents feel sometimes while
punishing their children. It deals with self-conflict of wanting to choose between doing the right thing or
the child’s happiness. This poem deals with love that causes parents to do things that they are unwilling
to do. The poem describes parents as being scald by the tears of their child as they feel the pain and
sadness of their child. This poem deals with the unconditional love between parents and their children.
Although, this poem also deals with love, guilt, remorse, pain, and self-conflict, it is not as deep and
profound as the emotions being evoked in the poem “It is the constant image of your face”.