Analysing Rapture: World, Hand, Rapture and Elegy

World
World focuses further on separation or, more specifically, the pain of separation. The obsessive nature of the speaker is approached once more, as the idea of the speaker thinking constantly of the lover, even when they are on opposite sides of the world. The poem begins to introduce the notion that, to the speaker, the universe revolves around the lover. This poem contains imagery that implies the couple is a man and a woman, as the first stanza has the words 'sun' and 'moon', masculine and feminine symbols respectively. The use of opposites is very apparent in the last stanza as well, which speaks of 'shade' and 'the bud of a star'. This not only denotes a man and a woman, but also a sense of inequality between the two characters, as 'shade' has dark, cold connotations, whereas a 'star' represents hope and warmth. The poem also suggests a heterosexual relationship in the second stanza, whose last two lines read "You have scattered the stars towards me here, like seeds in the earth", which implies fertility and reproduction, something which is only possible naturally in a relationship between a man and a woman. This poem may signify the speaker's desire for children, therefore taking on a passive, feminine role, and indicating that the speaker still longs for a conventional relationship.


Hand
Despite the intimacy of the poem Hand, there are constant word choices which emphasise how alone the speaker is, such as 'imagined', 'air' and 'Far away'. The juxtaposition of loneliness and passion emphasises the solitude and despair that the speaker feels without the lover's presence. Again, despite the lover not being present, the speaker still seems to take a passive role, listening, while it is the lover who is the active one, "your hand reach[ing] out and strok[ing] my hair" and "your hand is holding mine". This further describes the imbalance in the relationship.


Rapture
The eponymous poem Rapture has religious connotations in the title alone, as the rapture is believed by Christians to be the end of the world, when Jesus will return and gather the 'true Christians' to send them to heaven. Rapture may also refer to extreme pleasure, happiness or excitement. The use of this word 'rapture', which has such different meanings, could implicate the beginning and end of a relationship; that the beginning evokes great joy, while the end could feel like the end of the world. Rapture explores great despair and unhappiness at the beginning, using rain as a pathetic fallacy, and using negative words and phrases such as "not paradise", "nowhere endlessly" and "queuing for death". However, as the poem continues, more hopeful and positive imagery is used, like "a sudden flight of birds", "from earth to heaven" and "your kiss... like pearls" showing the elevating power of love. This poem combines negative and positive imagery such that it gives the message of love changing the way one sees things, that in times of great sorrow, love can bring joy, much like the end of the world being turned into the positive feeling of intense happiness.


Elegy
Elegy describes the speaker's dependence on the lover, through imagining their life without them, and how incomplete life would be without them. The image of unity comes up in the first stanza, reinforcing the typical romantic notion that two people were made for each other, by use of phrases like "this, which perfectly fits the scoop of my palm". The poem also further demonstrates the inequality in the relationship; although the description of the lover's bones as "brittle things" implies a shift in power, that the lover now has soft, frail, feminine qualities, at the end of the poem, the speaker describes lying on the lover's grave "above your bones till I mirrored your pose", showing subservience and obedience even in the event of the lover's death.