Analysing some pre 1914 poems written in quite different ways.
Question 3.
In my essay I will be analysing some pre 1914 poems written in quite different ways. I will be looking at what each poems idea about love and relationships are. I will than move on to compare these poems. Once this is completed I will be giving my personal opinions on each poem and what I think about what their ideas of relationships and love.
I will be using three poems written by different people, in different styles and presenting different ideas towards love. The first poem I chose is a 19th century French love poem, written in the form of a ballad. In other words it is a narrative poem written in quatrains rhyming ABCB. Ballads contain an element of dialogue; they are another way to tell a story. Ballads often have an objective speaker, someone with an opinion, and a plot builds up to a climax. All these characteristics of a ballad are present in this poem "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" written by John Keats (1795 - 1821) in April 1819 after he had fallen under the spell of Fanny Brawne. Previously, in the fifteenth century, Alain Chartier wrote a poem called "La Belle Dame Sans Mercy". It is believed that John Keats' poem was not completely original. However, apart from the titles these poems were completely different. This 'original' title is medieval French for "The Lovely Lady Without Pity". This also gives us some idea of what the poem is about. This poem is not a medieval ballad, it is a romantic poem written in the form of a ballad. The poem speaks of a beautiful lady who had the power to make any man fall under her spell. The poem is structured in three sections. The first section arouses the reader's interest, and creates an atmosphere of loneliness.
"The sedge is withered from the lake,
And no birds sing."
The second section creates a contrasting atmosphere of enchantment, and builds up to the climax of the nightmare.
"She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true.' "
The final section shows the speaker in his dream, in which he sees death-pale kings and princes who warn him of this cruel maiden.
The second poem I chose was "Remember" which was written in the nineteenth century by Christina Rossetti ...
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And no birds sing."
The second section creates a contrasting atmosphere of enchantment, and builds up to the climax of the nightmare.
"She found me roots of relish sweet,
And honey wild, and manna dew,
And sure in language strange she said -
'I love thee true.' "
The final section shows the speaker in his dream, in which he sees death-pale kings and princes who warn him of this cruel maiden.
The second poem I chose was "Remember" which was written in the nineteenth century by Christina Rossetti (1830 - 1894). The poem is a lover's farewell in sonnet form. This poem falls into two sections, in the first octave (eight lines) the speakers requests that their spouse will remember them, as they are dying.
"Remember me when I am gone away,
Gone far away into the silent land;"
In lines nine to fourteen of the poem the speaker changes what she says, she tells her love that if he were to forget her and be happy, he should not feel guilty, she would rather he was happy and smiling than to be haunted by his past.
"Better by far you should forget and smile
Than that you should remember and be sad."
My final poem is called "The Flea" written by John Donne (1571 - 1631). The flea was written as one of 55 of Love-lyrics written by John in the 1590's and the 1600's. This love lyric poem is set out in three stanzas. In the first of these the speaker is sorrowful that his love and himself cannot consummate their marriage.
"And this, alas, is more then wee would doe."
In the second stanza, he begs her to spare the life of the flea, as it is the only thing in which a part of both their bodies are intertwined.
"This flea is you and I, and this
Our marriage bed, and marriage temple is;"
By the last stanza she has killed the flea and her husband tries to persuade her that she will loose no more honour when she consummates her marriage, than she lost blood to the flea.
One viewpoint about love shown in "La Belle Dame sans Merci" is that women can make a man fall deep in love with her and once this is accomplished she abandons him and becomes someone completely different.
"And I awoke and found me here,
On the cold hill side."
The poems idea of love is that it is false and anyone (especially women) can fake love, and make their spouse believe that they are in love; when, in fact, they are using love to achieve what they wish from someone else. "Remember" has a different view on love, it speaks of letting a love go, but still remembering. Therefore meaning that love can end, but it will always be alive as long as you remember it. It also says that it is not wrong to forget an old love and there is no reason to grieve if you do forget.
"Yet if you should forget me for a while
And afterwards remember, do not grieve:"
Then when we look at "The Flea" we see another point made by this poem. "The Flea" proves that love can be a struggle and that no matter how much one person loves another, not every relationship can be as wished. Some people can disapprove of a relationship, which can make the best relationship hard.
"Though parents grudge, and you, w'are met,
And cloistered in these living walls of Jet."
In "La Belle Dame" the beautiful woman, seduces the knight, she uses her beauty and song to lure him back to her "Elfin Grot" and traps him there.
"She took me to her elfin grot,"
Both "Remember" and "The Flea" are trying to persuade someone of something. In "remember" the dying woman/man tries to persuade his/her lover to remember him/her. The dying lover begs her spouse to remember them, later on in the poem she tries to persuade him/her to not grieve if he/she was to forget them for a while. In "The Flea" the husband is trying, at first, to persuade his wife that this flea is special, that it is not just a flea but also a part of him and of her and a representation of their love, and if she was to kill the flea it would be like killing their love. However, once the flea is dead he moves on to try and persuade his wife that if she were to consummate their marriage she will loose no honour.
"Just so much honour, when thou yeeld'st to mee,
Will wast, as this flea's death took life from thee."
"The Flea" shows a man who is desperate to sleep with his wife, he expresses strong feelings and wishes to consummating his marriage with his wife. He seems very passionate towards her but he does seem a little bit obsessed with sex.
"Yet this enjoys before it wooe,
And pamper'd swells with one blood made of two,
And this, alas, is more then we would doe."
"Remember" is about love, strong feelings of love. The lover who is dying wishes that their spouse will remember and love them forever. Very strong feelings of love and upset are present in this poem.
"Remember me when no more day by day
You tell me of our future that you plann'd:
Only remember me; you understand."
Lust is one of the two emotions present in "La Belle Dame". The knight is obsessed with the faery's child. He cannot be in love with her because he knows nothing about her, he is just infatuated.
"I set her on my pacing steed,
And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong she would have bend, and sing
A faery's song."
The other emotion does not appear until the end of the poem, it comes to light after the knight has seen the pale kings and princes in his dream, once he has been warned, but it is too late, the woman has already trapped him. He feels very lonely at the end of the poem, and very upset as he thought that he had found true love, and he thought she loved him.
"Remember" explores the idea that love cannot be perfect and that eventually it must come to an end, no matter how much you wish to keep what you had. "La Belle Dame" shows that you can never tell if it is true love or not, and it also shows that you cannot fall in love with a beautiful stranger; It would be nothing more than infatuation. Love takes time and infatuation can seem like love at first. In "The Flea" the idea of love is that it can break any barriers and it doesn't matter if parents or friends disapprove of what you have, you can still keep it, you are just restricted in who you can tell and in how you can show your love.
"La Belle Dame" is an honest poem, if you were to trust every pretty stranger you meet you could be in a lot of trouble, and you could end up getting very hurt, no-one can be sure that they are in love unless they know every little detail about the one they are infatuated with. "Remember" seems to be saying that love must die eventually; if it is true love then it should last forever, no matter what. Finally "The Flea", if love can win over anything then everybody would be happy. If someone truly loves somebody then their love will hold strong throughout life's course.
All these poems show different ideas about love and relationships, Some of which are a little far fetched, but some very true.
Stephanie Twaites 1
