The poem “Wedding-Ring,” by Denise Levertov is a short poem about a woman who sees her wedding

ring and thinks of a marriage gone awry. Because the narrator tells the story without speaking, we can
assume that we are in her head. This deep excavation into her thought process really evokes a subject
that many can relate to: the pain one feels when a relationship ends. Throughout the poem, Levertov
uses a plethora of literary elements to help the reader feel and imagine the pain of ending a
relationship, but more specifically, a marriage that may have ended tragically and involuntarily.

The first section introduces the most important symbol in the poem, and also the title of the poem; the
wedding-ring itself. The wedding ring is used in two ways. First, it is used as a literal object in the poem
to convey a story to the reader. Second, and most importantly, the wedding ring represents everything a
marriage represents. Wedding rings are symbolic of commitment, happiness, eternity, love, or maybe
even burden to some. In this poem, the wedding ring is a symbol of all of those things, but it also
symbolizes the pain that wearing one can bring.

On one end of the spectrum, the narrator wants nothing to do with it as evidenced by connotations and
a simile used by the author to describe where the narrator has stored her ring. She placed it out of sight
in “a basket, as if at the bottom of a well.” The simile here is obvious; the narrator is comparing the
bottom of a shallow basket to the bottom of a well. The connotation used here surrounds the word,
“bottom.” Levertov could have just written, “the well,” but this would not bring the reader to recognize
the depth, darkness, and loneliness one feels when they reach bottom… which is what this word
portrays. This is not the place you would store a keepsake used to evoke good memories… quite the
opposite. The narrator continues her symbolic disdain for the ring by saying later on that, “It can’t be
given away, for fear of bringing ill-luck.” She despises what the ring symbolizes to the superstitious point
that she believes if it were given away, the ring will somehow transfer whatever ended her marriage to
the next wearer.

Levertov continues to portray the subject through more figures of speech and other literary devices.
Another literary device used in this poem is how Levertov has written the poem and how it sounds to
the reader. Levertov has mastered the flow in this poem to be able to use words and phrases ripe with
connotation to portray a different story than what one might have observed if it was written as a
paragraph. Her use of cacophony and euphony is most effective though, as it forces the reader to stop
where the author intends.

In the first section, the use of cacophony and euphony is extremely important to both the meaning and
subject of the poem. Levertov breaks the first section down into 4 lines of similar length and rhythm
which flows into the final line of the section which contains only two words. She ends the first line with
the word, “basket.” The “t” makes the reader stop and focus on the importance of where the ring has
been kept. The second line which is just an extended description of the first line and doesn’t merit as
much of the readers’ attention flows much easier into the third line, where Levertov ends with the
phrase, “Nothing will come to fish it back up.” By using the “p” sound, the reader is again forced to stop
for a second and ponder the phrase. Levertov also uses a hyperbole here in the use of the word
“nothing.” Most likely there is “something” that could get the ring out of the figurative well, but by using
this hyperbole, the narrator is really forcing the reader to connect with her hopelessness. The fourth line
yet again seems to be more mundane, as if Levertov wants the reader to focus on the hopelessness of
the situation and not the connotations of happiness and marriage that a ring “onto my finger” would
represent. It flows yet again into the final line of the section which just states, “it lies.” By using this in a
line by itself, the narrator describes the farce behind the idea of the wedding ring as a forever
commitment and personifies it as a liar to those who believe that the ring itself is happiness.

The rest of the poem is where Levertov uses more sound and rhythm to explain that the narrator has
been through a tragedy that prematurely ended her marriage. The wedding ring lies in basket full of,

keys to abandoned houses,

nails waiting to be needed and hammered
into some wall,
telephone numbers with no names attached,
idle paperclips.

Connotations of loneliness surround the words here such as “abandoned,” “waiting,” “needed,” and
“idle.” The reader can feel how lonely the narrator is. The reader can also start to see how her marriage
was abruptly ended. The nails are “waiting to be needed and hammered.” Because she personifies them
as “waiting,” it tells the reader that the nails were set there for some specific task, planned, but never
finished. The same feeling is evoked by the “keys to abandoned houses.” The wife and husband had
some sort of project together, and now she is alone just like a telephone number with no name
attached. The paperclip is a symbol of these projects never finished, left “idle” to time and memory.

The final section wraps up the poem and describes the agony the narrator feels in trying to let go of
something so symbolic of both tragedy and happiness. Again, Levertov utilizes regular lines mixed with
short phrases to help the reader maintain the correct flow of her poem. The narrator describes the
marriage as being, “good in its own,” pause, “time,” pause, “though that time is gone.” Levertov splits
the first phrase into two separate phrases to describe a fleeting memory. The narrator remembers the
marriage as being “good” but uses the word “time” to reflect briefly…. But then “time is gone.” Much
like her fleeting memory of the good, the actual marriage was fleeting, and is gone.

The final two lines wrap up the poem, the tragedy, and the narrator’s thoughts. The narrator is
frustrated with not being able to let go of the ring because of what it means to her and what the
relationship meant to her. She brings the story together by telling the reader that no matter what a
wedding ring may symbolize; one must “live” in order to get those things. She ends by asking a question
to the reader… a question that makes the reader think about the tragedy and the wife. The final
question asks the reader if she can give away the ring, and make “it into a simple gift I could give in
friendship?” Instantly the reader is transformed into the narrator and must ask themselves the same
question that the narrator has been asking the whole time, “How would I feel if my significant other was
taken away from me tragically?” This is the question that lingers with the reader, wrapping up the
poem, and inspiring deep thought about the subject.