Love's Labour's Lost

I always find the more modern poems to be especially interesting to analyze. It is simply expected that students will have to interpret poems with older diction and more sophisticated style; it is less expected by the students, however, to have to analyze the literary merits of a poem that uses modern diction and topic matter. In Cleopatra Mathis' "Getting Out," the speaker reflects upon the very real and very modern occurrence of a marriage gone wrong. The speaker hints that the couple's marriage simply fell apart; there is no bitterness in her tone, nor is there much of an explanation as to what caused the decline of the relationship. The only clue lies in the first stanza, where the speaker describes "another refusal, the silent work/ of tightening the heart./ Exhausted we gave up". The speaker indicates that some connection was broken between the couple, though the cause is never clearly stated.

The rest of the poem, however, does not focus on the cause of the fallout, but only focuses on the sorrow and grief that results from the fallout. According to the speaker, the fallout is mutual. Even as the couple is separated for good, the speaker and their spouse is described as "Taking hands/ [walking] apart, until [their] arms stretched/ between [them]. [They] held on tight, and let go." This mutual act is reluctant and sad, yet agreed upon as necessary. The speaker's intent of this poem, therefore, is not to express regret or bitterness toward her failed relationship, but rather to express sorrow that the relationship failed in the first place.