Song for a Spent 100w Bulb: Themes & Linking Poems

Song for a Spent 100w Bulb: Themes & Linking Poems

Themes in “Song for a Spent 100w Bulb”

Impermanence and Change

  • The life cycle of the bulb serves as a vivid metaphor for impermanence and change.
  • The bulb’s journey from being new and bright to becoming spent and dull mirrors the transient nature of human life.

Respect and Recognition

  • Despite the bulb’s spent state, the speaker offers acknowledgement and honour.
  • This suggests a theme of respect and recognition for service, regardless of one’s current abilities or status.

Nature vs Man-made

  • The poem contrasts the natural cycle of day and night with the artificial lifespan of the bulb.
  • This juxtaposition may reflect on the limitations and transitory nature of man-made objects compared to natural phenomena.

Linking “Song for a Spent 100w Bulb” with Other Poems in Jacob Sam-La Rose’s Collection

  • Both “Stand Still” and “Song for a Spent 100w Bulb” explore the theme of transiency and the passage of time.
  • Time is perceived differently; in “Stand Still”, speeding up, while in “Song for a Spent 100w Bulb”, reflecting on a lifespan.
  • The connecting theme is respect and acknowledgement.
  • The subject of admiration in “Sonnet” is not immediately clear until the closing lines, similar to the indirect praise of the bulb in “Song for a Spent 100w Bulb”.
  • Both poems deal with objects that stop functioning or ‘break’.
  • “Break” similarly invests emotional depth in a common object (breakable ‘totem’), which evidences Sam-La Rose’s ability to create profound reflections from everyday experiences.