The End of Once Happy Stories

In the book of 180 More Extraordinary Poems for Every Day by Billy Collins, two poems that are very similar to each other “The Albatross” by Kate Bass and “Ever After” by Joyce Sutphen. Both of these poems have an author that is a woman facing the reality of a broken relationship. The author of “The Albatross” and the author of “Ever After” both are writing about unstable relationships. The author of “Albatross” uses a necklace as reference. Similarly, in “Ever After,” the author uses a white cake to remember their once happy story, but at the end both authors are left lonely, sad, and hopeless.

In the poem “The Albatross” by Kate Bass is about a broken relationship. The author wears a necklace that is “a blue that used to match” her eyes (line 4). This reveals that when she starts her relationship with her partner, her eyes have the sparkle and shine that represents her love for him. At the time, she thinks her relationship will endure forever like a normal relationship that starts with love. However, her eyes are no longer blue, which signifies that the life has gone out of the relationship. The author also continued through the poem saying, “in a voice that no longer seems familiar, only strange” (line 18). His voice sounds strange because they do not communicate anymore. The part when the author says, “I hear a snap and sound like falling rain” the necklace is breaking, and so is her relationship (line 20). 

The same happens in the poem “Ever After” where the author remembers the day when she starts her relationship with her husband. She mentions that they share the joy in their wedding by “sinking [the knife] into the tall white cake” (line 13). She is remembering the moments where she was dressing for a special day that she was supposed to endure for the rest of her life, a moment where she united her life to her loved one forever. When the author says “What am I to you know that you are no longer what you used to be to me?” (lines 1-2).The author is having flash backs of her life as she feels hopeless by remembering the happiest moments followed by the reality in her life that she feels lonely. The author also mentions that her relationship used to be full of love but now it is like “unrelated persons except for the ex- that goes in the front of the words” (lines 7-8). Their love ends and she left with the feeling of sadness and hopelessness.

The two poems are both similar to each other. “The Albatross” is about a relationship that starts with love, and the author's eyes have a certain sparkle and shine. In the poem “Even After,” the author remembers the day when they got married, and sharing the joy by cutting the cake. In these two poems, the authors share their feelings and mention the day where they were happy. However, “The Albatross” author also mentions that her eye doesn’t have that sparkle when they start the relationship, while the author of “Ever After” mentions that their relationship is no longer like it used to be. These poems reveal the end of once happy stories to which both authors thought would endure for the rest of their life.