Fragment 31

The poem’s four stanzas follow the speaker’s reaction as she watches her beloved enjoying an exchange with a man. The first stanza introduces the reader to the three characters present in the poem and establishes the man as a rival for the attention of the speaker’s beloved; as he takes a position near the object of the speaker’s affection, the speaker compares him to the all-powerful collective of gods and finds him to be “equal” (Line 1) to them, which suggests that she, the speaker, falls short somehow. This comparison sets the lamenting tone of the poem as the speaker establishes herself as inferior to the nameless man who is her competitor for the attention of her beloved.

As the man listens closely to the speaker’s beloved, the speaker falls silent, suddenly rendered voiceless by her jealousy and insecurity. Ironically, however, the speaker recovers her voice by writing the poem and documenting her experience of jealousy in vivid detail. The first stanza sets the scene: The man sits “so close” (Line 2) to the speaker’s beloved, whose “lilting voice / And lovely laughter” (Lines 4-5) suggest she is pleased to receive the man’s attention. In the second, third, and fourth stanzas, the speaker notes the physical reactions that accompany these emotions: Her heart is set “fluttering” (Line 6) with passion but, moments later, her tongue “stiffens” (Line 9) when she notices her beloved’s response to the godlike man. The speaker’s skin tingles, and she feels “a rush of blood” (Line 11) in her ears, while her sight dims, and “sweat pours coldly over me” (Line 13). Toward the end of the poem, the speaker’s body trembles as if in the throes of passion or of illness; either explanation is possible to the speaker as she claims she feels as if she is dying. The speaker catalogs her complaints in visceral imagery, inviting the reader to partake in the physical experience of jealousy that comprises the bulk of the poem.

The poem is in the present tense, which emphasizes the cyclical nature of jealousy. Memories of jealousy can feel as powerful as the initial experience of jealousy, so every time the reader, or the poet, re-reads the poem, the initial feelings of jealousy return. The poet’s use of the present tense suggests that she has revisited this encounter over and over, and each time, the event wounds her as deeply as it did the first time.

The poet employs the use of hyperbole at the end of the poem, when the list of bodily reactions to the sight of the man with her beloved concludes with a mention of “death” (Line 15), which suddenly feels “very near” (Line 16). This response to the conversation taking place in front of the speaker is both exaggerated and genuine; though the encounter between the man and the speaker’s beloved is unlikely to cause death in a literal way, the emotion of jealousy has manifested in physical symptoms that suggest illness or a debilitating injury.

The sickening effect of love, passion, and jealousy ramp up with the last lines of each stanza; each of the four stanzas of “Fragment 31” contain four lines, and the final line of each stanza is considerably shorter than the previous three lines, consisting of only four syllables. The brevity of these last lines suggests a loss of energy or vitality as the speaker experiences a loss of hope and a consequent sense of deep loneliness.

The speaker’s anxiety around her own impending death contrasts with her comparison of her rival to the gods at the beginning of the poem; if he is truly “the gods’ equal” (Line 1), then he must be immortal, like the gods, while she, the speaker, is a mere human who must eventually succumb to the very mortal experience of death.