Thursday, September 16, 2010

Theme of "February"

Question 7: State the central theme of the poem in a sentence.

The central theme expressed in "February" is that love and emotion does us in and we cannot resist it. While beginning to read the poem, the theme seems quite the opposite. The speaker frequently bashes males and their desires through her comparison to a cat.

"If I'm not [dead], he wants to be scratched; if I am
he'll think of something..."

As the poem continues, however, the speaker states that she needs to go out and find love.

"You're the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here.
Get rid of death. Celebrate increase. Make it be spring."

No matter how much the speaker may hate the idea of love, Valentine's Day, or anything associated with it, she recognizes that love is still a necessity. Every person desires it in some way. She knows she must stop making excuses for everything and go out into the world to find love and begin her life.

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