About romantic love but the twist is that marriage changes everything
Structure and language
Form and structure is laid out in 4 stanzas
with first 3 describing romantic love before a
dramatic volta (in the final stanza)
This poem has 15 lines and only 1
line short of a sonnet which is normally
associated with romantic love
Sound
alliteration e.g. prancing and
promenade which underlines a
sense of ridiculousness
There is no regular rhyme scheme but there is
the occasional instance of eternal rhyme e.g.
after I was wedded, bedded. Rhyme draws
attention to the change of tone in the poem
Imagery
The title sounds grandiose because it is
French and a language which is associated it
chivalry and courtly love in the medieval era
Men are described in a series of hyperbolic and extraordinary
metaphors, some of which reference the era of knights and
damsels (e.g. castellated towers and buttresses). Some of the
metaphors are ridiculous subverting the romantic ideal e.g.
performing seals.
The first person possessive pronoun 'my' is used
frequently in relation to men, except at the end,
when the narrator becomes a possession.
In the 3rd stanza the image confirms the theme of
courtly love e.g. she is queen therefore remote and
untouchable but in the final stanza after marriage the
words suggest smallness e.g. she is a toy, so power
she had as queen has gone.
Attitudes, themes and ideas
Courtly love is a central theme but is
ultimately acknowledged as play which has
to give way to serious reality of marriage.
There is an ironic tone to the poem as a whole,
built by the fantastic imagery and hyperbole
deflated in the final stanza by black humour.
overall this is a light hearted portrayal of the
gap between expectations and reality.