Love, Loss and Holy Matrimony - an Explication of "parable of the Four-Poster" by Erica Jong

Love, Loss and Holy Matrimony

An Explication of "Parable Of The Four-Poster" by Erica Jong

Love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Perhaps when asking one to define what love is, they will have their own thoughts as to the definition, basing it on their own experience(s). On the contrary, some experiences could be memorable, while others are unfavorable as Erica Jong wrote about in her poem, "Parable of the Four-Poster". Jong, born 1942 in New York, graduated from Barnard College in 1963 and went on to get her M.A. in 18th Century English Literature at Columbia University in 1965. In 2007, continuing her long-standing relationship with the university, a large collection of Erica Jong's archival material was acquired by Columbia University's Rare Book & Manuscript Library, where it will be made available to graduate and undergraduate students.

Most of us have either lost that one-true-love, while others, are valuing that one-true-love. In the poem, "Parable Of The Four-Poster", Erica Jong dramatizes the conflict between love and pain and how hiding true-love will only hurt in the long run

In the beginning of "Parable of the Four-Poster", we learn about a woman and a man, and how unspoken words and actions lead to discontent. This narrative poem written by Jong in open form begins with the anaphora, "Because she wants to..." in the first three lines of the first stanza. As we see two people who madly in love with each other, cannot have a happy ending for a simple reason. When one makes first mistake in a relationship, it is important to face and try to solve it. If they don't, eventually both will make bigger mistakes that they will never have a chance to come back and fix it...

In the middle of the poem, they are united in holy matrimony with out their own consent. The first line of the stanza starts off with the metaphor, "They marry each other-- a four-way mistake." The speaker leaves out much reason for their marriage to one another, other than it's a four-way mistake "and all this in a real old-fashioned four-poster bed." It's apparent that the both of them are longing for someone else's embrace when the author quotes, "He goes to bed with his wife thinking of her. She goes to bed with her husband, thinking of him."