Love Poem With Toast

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1999

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Assonance

Assonance is the repetition of vowel sounds and diphthongs in poetry. Like rhyme, assonance can create rhythm in a poem, and Williams makes heavy use of assonance from the outset of “Love Poem with Toast.” From the first line, “what we do, we do,” the “wa/ we” sound plays a role in the poem that continues to the end. The first stanza has the words “what,” “we” twice, “wake,” and also car and start, both of which share the “ahh” sound.

In the second stanza, again the repetition of “what” and “we,” and in the third stanza, the double use of “we” followed by “wanting,” “wanted,” and “wanting” repeated five more times after that. In the final stanza, the words “wants,” “watching,” “want,” “wanting,” and “we” appear. The heavy use of the “wa/we” sound largely at the beginning of the lines builds a fluid, incantatory rhythm.

Williams also uses assonance with the diphthongs like coffee, perc, keep, getting, battery, leave, meat, breakfast, and pretend. And the “uh/oh” sounds as in “up,” “rusting,” “truth,” “hoe,” “poles,” “lose,” “boil,” “home,” “run,” “other,” “alone,” and “bone.” Interestingly, he tends to use the “wa/ahh” sounds, a lighter more fluid sound, to begin most lines, and the “ee/e/a” and “o/oi/u,” heavier sounds, to end the lines. For example, “wanting the water to boil” (Line 14) and “we gaze across breakfast and pretend” (Line 22).

Anaphora

Anaphora is the repetition of the first word or a phrase at the beginning of every sentence. Some famous poems that use anaphora to build tension and rhythm include William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 66” and Allen Ginsberg’s iconic Beat Generation poem “Howl.” In “Love Poem with Toast,” Williams uses anaphora in the third stanza by repeating the word “wanting” at the beginning of Lines 12-17, giving the poem a momentous rhythm and empathizing the theme of “wanting” and desire that is central to the poem.

Free Verse/Blank Verse

While most of “Love Poem with Toast” is written in free verse, meaning it adheres to no traditional meter or rhyme, in the last stanza, the poet makes use of an ABBA rhyme scheme much like the opening verse of a Petrarchan sonnet, which technically also makes the poem—or at least this part—blank verse (verse that has consistent meter). However, it’s done so unexpectedly and with varied line lengths that follow no meter. Lines 19-22 conclude with the words “end,” “alone,” “bone,” and “pretend.” By using four strong rhymes utilized when the poem is reaching its thematic and rhythmic peak, Williams shows his confidence and ability to thread different styles and poetic techniques together to create a voice that is uniquely his own.

Common Speech

In the tradition of many American poets, such as Walt Whitman, Charles Bukowski, and Allen Ginsberg, “Love Poem with Toast” is written in clean, concise common language that is largely accessible to readers or listeners. The use of simple language coupled with the occasional use of iambs gives the poem a casual, conversational tone for which Williams was known. At the same time, the poem maintains a certain musicality throughout. Also, all the words in the poem are one or two syllables, with the exception of two words, “battery” and “powering,” both of which appear together in the middle of the poem (Lines 9-10). Interestingly, with certain American accents, such as the southern accent from William’s region, the words when read aloud might sound like two syllables and so wouldn’t disturb the rhythm established in the poem.