Actions Speak Louder Than Words In Poetry

Just as light overpowers darkness, actions overpower words. A wise man once said, “actions are worth 1000 words”, but we as humans tend to make mistakes in our actions that are significant, and against the word of humanity, but we repeat them anyway. In order to get out of them, we attempt to coax our way out of things. This could be through words that provide affection. Instead, we must act to show affection. Yusef Komunyakka writes a factual description of realistic fiction, called “My Father’s Love Letters,” which is a poem about an abusive husband that uses allusions and metalepsis to support self-contradictory of the husband, which creates a desirable tone because the father feels desirable towards his wife, but doesnt realize that actions speak louder than words until it's too late. Metalepsis originated from the greek word of metōnymia. This could mean “substitution” or “sharing”. In other words, it shows how one object/thing refers to another, but is only partly related to it. An example would be referring to your car, as your “wheels”. But in further explanation this could lean into the fact that actions speak louder than words.

Everyone has regrets, and sometimes a second chance is all that’s needed. When it is not provided, it is common to push down anything in our way to feel redeemed of ourselves. It is important to forgive others, but we need to learn to forgive ourselves, such as in the case of the poem, “My Father’s Love Letters”. The author, Yusef Komunyakka, describes a husband’s relationship with his former wife by using the allusion of “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, which is a song sung “by Mary Lou Williams,'' to illustrate the fact that the song “never made the swelling go down” (stanza 1, lines 10-11). This is an allusion because a song was taken from another source, which was a 1950s love song. Through this, the reader can infer that during the start of a husband and wife’s relationship, the song, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, was their song. The reader can also infer that violence was the reason the wife left the husband through words like “swelling”, The wife in the poem might have listened to the song in spite of comfort of leaving her husband, but the couple’s song, could not change actions that were already carried out by the husband in reality. In contradictory, the husband uses words in a letter to his wife with desirable words, such as “love, baby, honey”, and “please” (stanza 2, lines 9-11). This shows a self-contradiction between his words and his actions. The husband’s actions/violence were so inhumane, and against his loving and desirable tone shown in his letter to his wife, that the initial spark of love that the couple had together through their song, could not change the fact that the husband beat her. So, the allusion of the song, “Polka Dots and Moonbeams”, supports the self-contradiction that the desirable words of the husband could not overpower the actions that were committed by him. However, even though the husband realized his faults, love letters to his wife were the only thing that could be inferred to help him feel better about his actions of violence. This creates a desirable tone because the husband desires to be redeemed of his actions, and shows this through his loving words in his letters to his wife. So, in part, the inhumane actions of the husband overpowered those of desirable tone of words, and even their song. This caused the wife to leave, because the husband’s actions spoke louder than his words.

Sometimes, we feel it necessary to fix our mistakes, but then we find it hard to admit to them because we are ashamed of our actions. In stanza 5, line 1, Yusef Komunyakka conveys through the quote, that the husband, “who stole roses and hyacinth for his yard”, could otherwise mean, through metalepsis, that the husband is hardworking for the benefit of his wife and family. This is metalepsis because the author is referring to his trabajador as “roses” and “hyacinth”. Therefore, Yusef Komunyakka refers one thing to another, which stealing “roses and hyacinth” is considered hard work, but only slightly related. The reader could also assume from “stole,” that the husband works way too hard for the money he earns, and deserves more than he receives. In the poem, the husband might have been violent because of the build up of frustration and worry from his work. This could be the reason he was physically hurting his wife, because he was taking all of his emotions and stress out on her. This violence led to, as it was inferred, the wife leaving her husband. Although in the poem, the husband has his son write desirable letters to his wife for him. This is supported by how the husband “could only sign his name” (stanza 4, lines 1-2), and would only talk about “how many bricks formed each wall.” This is supported because it shows self-contraction between the husband’s actions because he has enough energy and shows no guilt when he’s in the process of hurting his wife, but does not want to admit his faults to his wife, personally, in a letter. Also, the fact that the only one with the husband, is his son, could be because the son had a deep connection with his father. The son could also be inferred as wanting to be with his father most of the time, and his father felt he needed to treat his son accordingly. This is probably why the son did not leave with his mother, all because he wasn't a victim of violence. The attention from the husband’s son could also have resulted in the expectance of the wife to be more attentive. This creates a desirable tone because the husband has a desire for attention of his wife, which is why the husband takes his emotions out on her, and then has his son write to her for him, in order to show his desire for the wife to come back. The husband, however, does not feel he is worthy to write the letter, because of his actions, which is why he has his son do it for him.

In dedication to the eyes of the world, it is concluded that we eventually know what we do wrong, through criticism or none at all. This is why we often feel guilt, or regret our actions. This, after all, is humanity. In addition to that, we also feel that we need to repent in order to get rid of this guilt, or, in other words, have redeemed regrets. The author, Yusef Komunyakka, presents this idea clearly, and then revolves the poem around the husband who felt redeemed of his regrets after send words in a letter to overpower his previous actions of violence. In “My Father’s Love Letters,” an abusive husband is described through allusions and metalepsis, which supports self-contradictory of the husband, which then creates a desirable tone because the father feels desirable towards his wife, but doesnt realize that actions speak louder than words until it's too late. Furthermore, in the poem, it says that the father was “almost redeemed by what he tried to say”. This shows that the father understands his words will never be enough to overpower his abusiveness. In the end, redeemed regrets is does not exist, but only in the fact that we were almost redeemed, which will only help us forgive ourselves partly.