A Heartbreaking Poem

Hi readers! In today's blog, I will be talking about a poem involving

family heartbreak, called “Broken Home”. It talks about the differences

between a “house” and “home”. How a home is where the heart lives

and how the house is where the heart flees. The main reason why I’m

introducing “Broken Home” here on my blog post is because it has

many themes and a variety of poetic devices which will be explained

later in the blog, so stay tuned!

The poem has a total of 4 stanzas. The first stanza talks about how the

poet always thought that a “home” and a “house” were the same thing.

There are some lines in this poem which have a much deeper meaning

than I thought. “Until I saw how a broken gourd couldn’t float on water,

then I knew what it meant to be broken”. Here, a “broken gourd” is a

replacement for “a broken family”. “Couldn’t float on water” means that

the family’s relationship is sinking.

Moreover, the second stanza explains how the couple used to act

before and after their downfall. For example, “no goodnight kisses, just

fight and hisses”. It shows that before it used to be kisses, but now it’s

just fights.
Regarding stanza three, it talks about how there is no romance between

the couple. There is just hatred filled in the room. It shows how they

used to be a loving couple. With reference to the poem, “Tears and

curses from your once loving wife”. This proves how the lady was a

loving wife before.

Lastly, the last stanza concludes the poem with the line, “Home is where

the heart lives, the house is where the heart flees”. In my opinion. This

line is the main and most important line in this poem, since it

summarises the whole poem.

After the description of the poem, let me list the themes in this excellent

poem, they are divorce and violence. Divorce is the major theme of this

poem. Here are some lines from the poem: “ Love will be faded away”

and “Tears and curses from your once loving wife”. These lines show

how there will be no more love between the couple and how the wife

now only cries and curses her husband. Violence is another theme for

the poem. “Just slap and kicks”, “Just fight and hisses” and “punches

and guilt from a drunken husband”. These lines show that the couple fights

all day long nonstop . From slaps to kicks to punches.

The poem also includes some poetic devices like end rhyme, visual

imagery and personification. End rhymes: “ no goodnight kisses, just

fight and kisses”, where “kisses” and “hisses” rhyme. Visual imagery: “

Until I saw how a broken gourd couldn’t float on water”. I immediately

imagined a broken gourd which was sinking. Personification: “ and the

heart will flee in search of peace”. This shows how the writer gave a

human role to the heart.

To conclude, this poem shows all the problems a family can face and if

not fixed properly, it can lead to a negative result which you would have

never thought of. This poem conveys the message to take things slowly

and that arguing is not the answer to every problem. Instead, try to talk

it out.

I hope you enjoyed the poem I shared this week and look forward to the

poem I’ll share next week. Remember to comment on your favourite

part of the poem and continue to follow me on my blog page to read the

poems I introduce during the “Poem Revealed” segment. See you soon!