Background of the Poet
Charlotte Mew was an English poet.
Her works span the cusp between Victorian poetry and Modernism, and this is definitely seen with this poem and its unique and idiosyncratic structure and style of dealing with the concept of love and wisdom.
Structure and Rhyme Scheme
Completely irregular (finally!) rhyme scheme and structure of the poem. In addition, only a singular stanza. 10 line poem (Décima)
A single stanza could denote a singular life that we all live and therefore we progress from a more chaotic view of love to a more informed and wisdom-ridden age.
The irregular structure and rhyme scheme could easily denote how life is indeed regular with the numerous and alternating experiences we all have, which is pretty much different for all of us in what we may go through in life.
However, there are random insertions of couplets, for instance the first two lines of the poem. This could denote love and how there must always be two lines (i.e. two people) for each other to rhyme, and therefore could reinforce the idea of love. Alternatively, the way Mew has randomly situated these couplets could also denote the random nature of the existence of couples and love throughout the world.
Title
‘Rooms’. Very simple — a singular word. The idea could denote how we spend our lives essentially in rooms, and each room has its own experience and background which ultimately shapes our identity and background. Alternatively, and in addition, the rooms we spend our time in could eventually shape our personalities and identities and therefore the word rooms is used as the setting or context in which we spend the majority of our lives. (It’s pretty thought provoking!).
Explanation:
