"La Vie C’est La Vie"
On summer afternoons I sit
Quiescent by you in the park
And idly watch the sunbeams gild
And tint the ash-trees’ bark.
Or else I watch the squirrels frisk
And chaffer in the grassy lane;
And all the while I mark your voice
Breaking with love and pain.
I know a woman who would give
Her chance of heaven to take my place;
To see the love-light in your eyes,
The love-glow on your face!
And there’s a man whose lightest word
Can set my chilly blood afire;
Fulfillment of his least behest
Defines my life’s desire.
But he will none of me, nor I
Of you. Nor you of her. ‘Tis said
The world is full of jests like these.—
I wish that I were dead.
Jessie Redmon Fauset: poem And analysis
"La Vie C’est La Vie" Analysis
“La Vie C’est La Vie” is a French expression for that’s life. Jessie Fauset wrote this poem in five stanzas, that contain ABCB rhyme scheme. The poem begins by explaining how people will struggle during their lifetime encountering obsticles. Fauset uses the setting of being in nature to first set the tone of the poem. In illustraiting the surroundings in detail such as discriptions like sunbeams and the bark on trees provide a sense of joy and peace.There for the tone of the poem in the first stanza is calm and optimistic. The second stanza provides a tone change right away from peaceful to almost a almost restless feeling. This is illustraited by the squirrels actions as they frisk and chaffer. Fauset also describes the voice of the other person as conflicted. The third and fourth stanzas are in the point of view of the woman realizing that she may not be as commited to the man as he would like her to be. This also could be Fauset’s indication of guilt for not being faithful in the relationship. Finially the last stanza is the darkest the woman is now drawing conclusions about the relationship between the two.