Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Sylvia Plath's "Never Try to Trick Me with a Kiss" employs a villanelle form, a rigid poetic structure characterized by its intricate rhyme scheme and repetitive lines. The rhyme scheme of ABA ABA ABA ABA ABAA reflects the poem's themes of cyclical disillusionment and the inevitability of human suffering.

The repetitiveness of the villanelle form underscores the omnipresence of life's betrayals, as expressed in the lines "Never try to trick me with a kiss" and "The dying man will scoff and scorn at this." These lines serve as a constant reminder, a kind of moral refrain, that warns against the fallacy of surface-level pleasures and conventional wisdom.

The poem questions multiple forms of authority and convention-romantic love, medical science, virginity, even the promises of "eternal serpents," perhaps a biblical allusion to original sin. By doing so, it exposes the fragility and temporality of human experiences, contrasting them with the unyielding truths of suffering and death. The "dying man" serves as a representation of ultimate truth, the unavoidable destiny that makes all human endeavors seem trivial.

This inquiry into the paradoxes of human experience is accentuated by the recurring line "The dying man will scoff and scorn at this." It acts as a punctuating reality check, interrupting any illusions created by the various scenarios described in the poem. These scenarios-whether it's the doctor claiming the pain as his own or the suave eternal serpents promising bliss-may offer momentary comfort or pleasure but are ultimately transient and unfulfilling.

The villanelle form also creates a sense of entrapment. Its rigidity mimics the cycle of hope and disillusionment that characterizes human experience. One can't escape the repeated lines just as one can't escape the realities of pain, disillusionment, and mortality, no matter how tempting the promises or comforting the illusions.

The poem culminates in the lines "Sooner or later something goes amiss; / The singing birds pack up and fly away," capturing the inevitability of disappointment and loss. Again, the repeated lines that follow hammer in the bleak truth-neither love nor science nor faith can trick us into escaping the ultimate truths of human existence.

Thus, in "Never Try to Trick Me with a Kiss," the form and content are closely interwoven. The villanelle's repetitiveness and strict rhyme scheme reinforce the thematic elements, creating a tightly controlled exploration of life's disappointments and the inescapable reality of human suffering.

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