A Late Aubade

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“A Late Aubade” by Richard Wilbur The main gist of this poem was that the speaker was trying to convince the subject of the poem, an unidentified woman (his wife? his lover?) to stay in bed with him all day, as opposed to going about her daily tasks. The speaker lists all of the things that she could be doing with her day, should be doing with her day, and tries to explain to her that all of these things are a waste of time. He tries to tell her that it would be a better use of her time, and, albeit, more enjoyable, to just lie in bed kissing him all day. Even after she decides that it is just too late to stay in bed, he tells her to go downstairs and bring up food for the two of them, as it has already reached noon. That being said, I really liked this poem. It just seemed really sweet. Unlike most of the poems we have read/analyzed so far, this one didn’t seem to be about sex. He didn’t want to get her in bed; he wanted to keep her there, even if only to get a chance to lie next to her for a little longer. It seemed that the speaker just loved the woman so much that all he wanted to do was lie in bed with her all day. I don’t know, it just seemed cute, to me. On a more analytical note, the imagery in this poem was amazing, with phrases like: “liver-spotted page,” “a raucous bed of saliva,” and “ruddy-skinned pears,” to name a few. It was just so incredibly descriptive that it really added a little extra something and made me feel like I can see and feel and hear all of the things that he was describing. Also, in this poem we see the use of the common poetic theme of “carpe diem.” When translated, this phrase means, “Seize the day” (or, when translated more literally, “pluck the day,” but that probably won’t aid me in proving my point.) He is begging the woman to live life to its full potential, to not waste time with menial, unimportant, and unrewarding
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