The effects of war
In the poem "What they were like?’’ the narrator analyzes the way war affects normal people. The narrator focuses on the war from Vietnam and he shows how ordinary people were affected. The narrator claims that there was no more happiness for those people as everything they loved was destroyed. They slowly lost everything that was dear to them and everything that remained was just a memory of the way their lives once were. The poem ends with the narrator claiming songs could no longer be heard in the country. This suggests that because of the war, the people lost the things that made them happy.
Uncertainty and truth
The main theme in the poem "Clouds’’ is the idea of truth and how one person may be deceived. The narrator focuses on how a person can have troubles finding the truth and how difficult it is to understand a person’s true intentions. The narrator expresses how she is unsure what her lover wants and how difficult it is to see behind the mask he makes her watch. However, the narrator highlights how the truth will always emerge and how no matter how hard a person tries to hide their true intentions, time will eventually reveal the truth.
Love
In the poem "The aches of marriage’’ the main theme is love. Through this short poem, the narrator describes her own view on love and how she considers love to be. In this poem, love is described in a rather negative manner, as something bringing pain to other people. The narrator calls marriage and love a prison in which many find themselves trapped in and from which they can’t escape. Despite this, the narrator points out that love can bring happiness and for many the only way through which they can achieve happiness is through this prison. It is also important to note how love is described as being the only reliable and true source of happiness.
