The Jonas Brothers song "Sucker" and several love poems explore how being in love can cause individuals to experience a changed psychological state where they feel controlled by their partner, yet still desire for this dynamic to continue. The song and poems represent this change through collective language about the relationship, symbolic language depicting the loss of control, and emotive language expressing the longing for the relationship despite its effects. They illustrate how love can powerfully impact one's mindset and behavior, and how people often remain attached to this changed psychological experience brought on by their romantic bond.

1. Leaving Certificate English
Jonas Brothers, ‘Sucker’Leaving Certificate love poems

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Sucker:
Recap:
Paul Durcan:
Eavan Boland:
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Ni Chuilleanain:
Adrienne Rich:
Recap:
How Jonas Brothers’ song is about the
effect of love
Treatment of theme and resulting
language in the text
‘Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me’
and ‘Love’
‘Nessa’ and ‘The Difficulty that is
Marriage’
‘Living in Sin’
‘Sucker’ and all poems
‘To Niall Woods’

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The contrasting themes and traditions in Classical
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The song
The Jonas Brothers’ comeback single,‘Sucker’,
chronicles how a relationship can overpower an
individual, and hence causes acts them to act in
ways they would usually not, when they’re not in a
relationship, summed up aptly with the song’s title,
as well as the line “you’re making my typical me
break my typical rules”.
Jonas Brothers: Sucker
The Jonas Brothers indicate the relationship by singing “We go
together” before quickly establishing that they are controlled by the
other:“I follow you through the dark…You’re the medicine and the
pain, the tattoo inside my brain”.
However, they admit that this won’t stop, as it’s a psychological hold,
singing “I’m a sucker for you… for all the subliminal things”, explaining
their new behavioural mode caused by the other.
Their reliance on the relationship, despite its dismepowering effects, is
then confirmed as they tell their beloved in song “Don’t complicate
it… ‘Cause I know you and you know everything about me”.

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The contrasting themes and traditions in Classical
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Baroque
Sucker
Recap of the song
As said, the song focuses on the psychological
effect of a relationship; when one enters such a
bond they experience a new and very different
mindset to previous. However, despite losing
control, as they are affected by another, they long
for this to continue.
So the song explores the psychological effect of a relationship, and
how paradoxically the individual longs for this to continue, despite it
involving a lack of control.
This is represented by the language in a relationship, which is a
mixture of collective terminology, such as “We go together”,
symbolism and metaphors to represent the loss of a control, such as
“I follow you through the dark”, as well as emotive language when
desiring for this to continue, such as “It’s true, I’m a sucker for you,
yeah// Don’t complicate it”. Such techniques can also be seen in love
poems on the Leaving Certificate English course.

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Paul Durcan
Longing for more
Paul Durcan’s poetry shows, like in ‘Sucker’, a
similar psychological change when in a
relationship, caused and controlled by the other,
as well as a heightened emphasis on how those
affected long for this to continue.
In ‘Nessa’ Durcan details the titular character’s control of him
symbolically, describing how she “dropped me in her well” which leads to
orders such as “Take off your pants”, to which the poet complies:“And I
very nearly didn’t.” Like in ‘Sucker’, the person affected is happy for this
to continue, seen by the close when he asks Nessa “Will you stay with
me on the rocks?”
The same is seen in ‘The Difficulty That is Marriage’, where Durcan notes
how the marriage is difficult but he longs to remain part of it,“We
disagree to disagree, we divide, we differ,/ Yet each night as I lie in bed
beside you”, and like in ‘Nessa’ admits he is happy with such
psychological surrender: “Yet gladly on this changeling earth I should live
for ever/ If it were with you, my sleeping friend.”

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Eavan Boland
All in the mindTwo of Eavan Boland’s poems consider love similarly to
the Jonas Brothers in ‘Sucker’, as they focus on the
resulting psychological change.
In ‘Love’ she details how love causes a changed
psychological mindset (metaphorically represented by
the epic) which she is reliant on, seen as she asks her
husband “I see you as a hero in a text… Will we ever
love so intensely again? Will love come to us again”.
Similarly, in ‘Black Lace Fan My Mother Gave Me’, the poet
details how love can only be explored through the
imagination and change to the psyche, which she does with
her parents’ relationship, so as to inspire a similar personal
experience:“And no way to know what happened then…
none at all, unless, of course, you improvise.”
Of note also is the use of language in the poems: the change
is desired and the language is emotional and personal: “Will
we ever love so intensely again” and “unless, of course, you
improve.”

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Ni Chuilleanain
The same is seen with Ni Chuilleanain, in her
poem “To Niall Woods and Xenya Ostroovskaia”.
She begins by clearly establishing the marriage
between her son and his new wife, using collective
terminology:“And you both see the same star”,
before indicating the change that comes about
because of love:“time to set out on your
journey”.
Believe in the future
Ni Chuilleanain goes on to clarify this is a psychological change,
an altered mindset because of love, metaphorically represented
by “The sleeping beauty in her high tower/ With her talking cat
asleep… When the cat wakes up he will speak in Irish and
Russian”.
Significantly, once again we see people subscribing to this
changing mindset, even if the poet admits there is some
uncertainty, seen with Ruth who “went out at night and was
afraid”; Ni Chuilleanain asserts her son will be glad he
embraced himself in love, like Ruth, who “lived happily ever
after”.

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Adrienne Rich
Adrienne Rich shows a differing approach to the
commitment to the changing psychological state
as a result of love, seen in her poem ‘Living in Sin’.
Here love is not as impressive as in poems by
Boland, Durcan or Ni Chuilleanain, however there
is still the desire to retain the changed
psychological experience involved.
Difficulty but commitment
Such is seen as the subject lives in wedlock, hence the symbolic title,
“Living in Sin”, and admits misgivings as the relationship has not
maintained its excitement, metaphorically represented by the banality
of the apartment:“A plate of pears,/ a piano with a Persian shawl, a cat/
stalking the picturesque amusing mouse/ had risen at his urging.”
However, this changing (now depressed) psychological mindset is
nonetheless subscribed to. The poet mentions her partner, who is not
presented impressively, metaphorically representing the lack of
excitement in the relationship,“rubbed at his beard, went out for
cigarettes”, yet she still remains committed to love, even if it is
depressing: “By evening she was back in love again, though not so
wholly”.

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Recap
‘Sucker’, as well as the poems of Boland, Rich,
Durcan and Ni Chuilleanain, shows how love
results in a changing psychological experience that
is affected by and/or controlled by another, which
the individual regardless longs to continue.
Love
This shows how love has a considerable effect on the
individual; it has the ability to change their mindset and
psyche, which the individual seemingly becomes reliant on,
longing for it continue despite the disempowerment
involved.
This explains the choice of language and stylistic
approach: a mixture of collective terminology to
represent both individuals in the relationship, symbolism
and metaphors to convey the disempowerment and yet
the emotive language desiring such to continue.

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Sucker:
Recap:
Paul Durcan:
Eavan Boland:
Recap
Ni Chuilleanain:
Adrienne Rich:
Love: a disempowering psychological experience
that the individual affected longs to continue.
Love represented by collectivism, symbolism/metaphors
conveying disempowerment and emotive language.
‘Nessa’ and ‘Difficulty That is Marriage’ represent the
desire for disempowerment in love to continue.
‘Love’ and ‘Black Lace Fan’ illustrate the
psychological alteration involved in love.
‘Living in Sin’ shows how love, even when it
is not impressive, is still longed for.
Email ryjolc@gmail.com for more
resources!
‘To Paul Woods’ details reasoning for why one
must subscribe to the disempowerment of love.