The theme of regret and abandonment is prominent in connecting the two poems “This Is Just to Say” and “l(a” to the short story Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich. Upon juxtaposing these three works, it is obvious that there also is the theme of relationships permeating through the three works.
In William Carlos Williams’ “This is Just to Say” the note appears to be something like a quick note of apology that was intended to express regret of taking something. However, the further the poem is analyzed it seems that Williams did not regret his decision whatsoever. In the note, he expresses how he knew they were not his and whoever it was he is addressing. He goes even further and adds insult to injury by describing how the plums were “delicious so sweet and so cold”, which makes it seem that he is not exactly sorry for what he did, but was just apologizing. This could be related to the idea of people apologizing for trivial things such as this just to move past it and end confrontation, but without actually having sincerity in their apology, hence the title. He wrote the note just to say that he had eaten the plums not that he was sorry. The relationship Williams has must be with someone he is close enough with to do something irritating like this, but know that he will be forgiven unconditionally.
E.E. Cummings’ “l(a” is a particularly interesting poem because of the hidden message it contains, as well as the aesthetics of the poem itself. At first glance, it hardly seems like a poem at all, and is almost a challenge to read and decipher. However, it is considered a lyric because it provides a brief description of emotions. The poem itself is “A leaf falls in loneliness”, because the phrase “a leaf falls” is contained within the word “loneliness”. The physical structure of the poem shows the path of a leaf falling and coming to a landing. The poem clearly exhibits the theme of abandonment and relationships, where the author clearly is being affected by being alone or neglected, and refers to the relationship, or lack thereof, that he has.
Lastly, the short story Love Medicine combines all the themes from the two poems: regret, abandonment, and relationships. The theme of regret is embodied by Lipsha’s Grandma Kashpaw. The affair that Lipsha’s Grandfather has is of course one of the relationships that is present throughout the short story, but more importantly is the relationship with his wife. This is what causes Grandma Kashpaw to feel neglected and abandoned, causing her to want a relationship with him even more. This desire ultimately ends in his death and leads to the sense of regret that falls on Grandma Kashpaw. It almost seems like an accidental idea of “if I can’t have him, no one can”.
While all three works have a different twist on a certain theme, they all have a way of being connected. While the two poems have a very simple appearance, they are both complex in meaning. The short story also is misleading in terms of a deeper meaning that can be found, which goes to show that meaning can be found in the simplest of literature.