Pre-1914 Century Poetry Coursework

All six of these poems are trying to send out a message of how they have experienced love but in a different sort of way, for example 'First Love' is about a person loving someone for the first time but in this poem it can also be to do with his back ground he might be a worker on a farm and his first love is the owners daughter he is restricted due to something holding him back. How ever in the poem 'Remember' it is a sad song about a loss of a lover and that one of the lovers is reminding the other one to keep on thinking and remembering about me because I wont be back. The poem 'How do I love thee?' this is a sign of confused love, Elizabeth Browning is not sure how to express her to love to her lover and counts the ways in which she can "let me count the ways." She also compares her love a lots of different things, "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height" she is comparing her love to no limits. These are a sign of abstract love things which are specific objects. All the poets are trying to express their love in a shape of poetry which all have different feelings and ideas about love.

All these songs were written before the 20th century and use old style language, in all of the poems there use old English with words 'thee', 'ail' and 'vair'. The ways in which these six poems are set out are formal straight to the reader with not much slang used. The way in which vocabulary is being used is old language and sophisticated to the poem it is being used as. There are lots of similes being used, in the poem 'Birthday' on the first line "my heart is like a singing bird" in this poem they are lots of similes she is comparing her heart to objects like 'rainbow shell' and an 'apple-tree'. The vocabulary used conveys a certain use of words for the poem, for the poem 'Remember' words like 'forget', 'counsel', 'darkness' and 'corruption' are words relating to the title of the poem 'Remember'. Like all songs they can be positive like love of happiness or negative for death.

The tone of each poem has its own thing there was a first time love and so the lover would have been sensitive, there was a confused love leading to confusion later on in life, there was lost love which most likely can not get back. In the poem "How do I love thee?" it starts of with a confused love but then at the end it promises that they love will be everlasting. In the poem " When we two parted" is a sad poem throughout and at the end if he was to ever meet his lover again it would be in silence and tears.

In some of the songs like "Villegiature" which means in French holiday it was about the author having to move to France when she was younger and how she had disliked living there. Most of the songs it is about the person who is hurt in love, experiencing a new love and talking about they present love at the moment. The way of love addressed does show a sign of portrayal love. I reckon in that some of the songs the poet are the people who are the narrator as well who have been experiencing love.

Throughout all the poems there are at least some sorts of poetic devices used like an enjambement both in "How do I love thee?" and "Remember". Both these songs and more use repetition, imagery by abstract or concrete love. In the poem "How do I love thee?" its purpose is to communicate to the depth of her lover and in "Remember" it says remember me but don't if it will make you sad. This poem was a past love and "How do I love thee?" would be a future love. There is a lot of use with similes, metaphor the imagery being abstract or concrete was used in all of the poems. When using poetic devices in a poem it shows that each poem has a meaning and a where to express it words better. It also presents love in two different ways, a way love can be expressed in words and love can be expressed in nature.

The poem's "How do I love thee?" and "Remember" both are sonnet saying a poem in only 14 lines. The poem "Villegiature" had 4 verses with 4 lines which feature an abab rhyme same as "First Love" it is also a lilting and romantic rhythm. The way in which the flow and length of the poem goes is that two ideas linking together two or three different ideas and points of love. The structure relates to the title and puts into more detail what it is about.

The two best songs out of the six for me are the 'First Love' and 'How do I love thee?' The poem 'First Love' is about a person that is in love, the mood and tone in which the song is written is an exciting and melodramatic song which creates an over emphasis about love. When Clare wrote the poem the world seemed to transform, he was absolutely petrified as soon as he got the feeling of love and soon his body had got warmed to the feeling because the love went into his blood. "My blood rushed to my face." Clare tries to describe falling in love in a concrete way as possible using similes and metaphors. In most of the poems they try to make the subject in a form of subject that makes the reader 'feel' as if they can imagine or picture the mood in their mind. In this poem they are three rhetorical questions ' when she looked what could I ail', 'are flowers the winters choice' and 'is love's bed always snow.' The reason why Clare mentioned this in his poem was to get the readers attention and try to make them figure out the questions, but because these are rhetorical questions there are no answers. In the poem 'How do I love thee?' the tone is a serious, expressive and a sincere poem. Browning tries to explore the ways in which some one can be loved, she also tries to compare things being concrete like day and night to abstract. This poem has an irregular rhyme scheme; it is persuasive uses a lot of questions which can be answered, statements and exclamations. There is a repetition if 'I lo0ve thee' to help persuade the reader to carry on reading. The last line tries to say that the ability to love can never end. 'With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life! And if God choose,' here she loves him with her life, 'I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise' here if anything goes wrong she will still love him. There is a strong element of religion in the poem mentioning "God" and "Grace". The poet uses comparison in order to express the quantity and quality of love their both process. "In my old griefs and with my childhood's faith" here this means that their love is unquestionable. For me all the songs were good but the one that I liked the most would of have to been the "Remember" by Christina Rossetti because of how the poet had written out the song, he is saying you have broken my heart and you can never enjoy my company any more and if you ever want to associate with me remember the times we had, and that if you were to remember me you should be sad of the loss.

Pre-1914 Century Poetry Coursework

Joe Subangan