"Ever After" VS. "The Albatross" Research

For my research paper, I decided to do the poems, “Ever After,” by Joyce Sutphen and “The Albatross” by Kate Bass. I originally did “Ever After” and “Valentine” on my poem essay, but unfortunately, I couldn’t think of good subjects to come up with to research for this essay, so I decided to choose another poem. I also thought about using my Stitches essay to research for this paper, but my topic was about the “languages” that David and his family use throughout the book and I thought that might be too hard to research as well.

In this paper, I’m going to research the topics of divorce and separation and how it affects the people in the relationship. In “Ever After,” it is clear that the two people aren’t married anymore, but it’s harder to tell the status of the people in “The Albatross,” so that’s why I’ve decided to use the word “separation” as well. It’s clear that the person still has a key to her house because it says, “I wait until I hear a gate latch lift / the turn of key in lock” (Bass 14-15) so he must be close enough to her that he owns a key to her house. But the idea that they are separated comes from the lines “I sit and she fingers the beads until you speak / in a voice that no longer seems familiar, only strange” (17-18). This indicates that they’ve been away from each other so long that his voice doesn’t sound the same to her anymore.

This same “notion” that these people are different from each other (and are no longer close) reappears in “Ever After,” as well. In the poem, it says “what am I to you now that you are no / longer what you used to be to me / who are we to each other…” (Sutphen 1-3). This gives the idea that since they are separated, they have no connection anymore and the feelings they once felt with ‘familiarity’ are gone. I hope that makes sense to you.

I’d also like to touch on (in the paper) the fact that both of these authors are women and how separation or divorce affect females because I’ve heard that it has a different impact on both of the genders. I’ve researched a little bit already and I’ve found some good information. I’d also like to possibly research about having an “identity” in relationships if that makes sense. I’ve heard a lot about how when someone is in a relationship, they suddenly become connected to the other person and the two people do everything together and go everywhere with each other. But when they decide to get a divorce or separate, it definitely affects both people because they suddenly have to figure out who they are without the other person in their life when they’ve dedicated so much time together. Lines 1-3 in the poem “Ever After” (that I mentioned up above) talk about the subject and I could probably connect the “familiarity of the voice” from “The Albatross” as well. I’m not exactly for sure about that but I’ll see when I start writing my paper! I hope all of this made somewhat sense to you.