Poetry Analysis

"Tears"

By Linda Neff

love laughter and tears (page 28)

Linda Neff is a wife, mother and high-school teacher in Guelph Ontario, Canada. Her book love laughter and tears was published in July 2003 and it contained a series of poems.

      The poem topics included:

• Love and Friendship
• Grief and Suffering
• Mirth and Milestones
• Life Lessons

The majority of her poems mention Jesus and God. The poem I chose was about pain and relief from pain, this is clear when she writes;

"Hope for tomorrow,

Tears of relief,

Tears of pain,

Peace comes after

Drought, like rain,"

In the line "Peace comes after" it is clear that she is trying to portray that after all the pain and sorrow, happiness and relief comes after. 

Two more lines that prove this point are, 

"Flowing in a new direction,

Pain is a watershed place."

The word watershed means that there is an important transition between two phases, in this case the two phases would be pain and relief from pain. This poem caught my attention because it is short, sweet and once I read it I understood it right away. It really captures hope that after pain, there is peace and happiness.