Analyzing “Triolet” by Robert Bridge
It has always been so easy to fall in love with someone, but at the same time incredibly difficult to keep that love alive or even let it go. In the poem “Triolet”, Robert Bridge shows us how familiar love is in different states but at the same time so different.
First of all we need to understand the title of this poem. Triolet is a French style of poem with usually eight total lines with certain line repeats itself. The first, fourth and seventh line are identical, the second and eight as well.
In the beginning the author was so sure about his love for this woman. “That love would prove so hard a master” sounds more like a long deep feeling that has been awaken at the time he met the girl. For him, it was a love at first sight. It was a sudden feeling; very different from a normal feeling that a person has with his or her friend.
The use of repetition verse in this poem shows that going through different state of love, everything would look the same but yet the feeling and atmosphere is totally different. Toward the end love takes some unexpected turn, as always, toward “sore distress” and “irretrievable disaster”. For outsider, everything looks the same, the couple who fall in love and have some minor arguments but for the man and the woman, everything seem like a disaster.
“Triolet” is a very simple poem about love. If we look at it as a third person’s point of view, love is indeed very simple. Just two people fall in love with each other and they might have a fight and break up then they find another love in no time. Only if someone have fall in love they would understand the real meaning of this poem. Unexpected, unpredictable, and uncontrollable is love. Love is a hard master.