Comparative Essay
I will compare A Women to Her Lover by Christina Walsh, How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, When We Two Parted by Lord Byron, Remember by Christina Rossetti and Villegiature by Edith Nesbit. In the poems I have chosen four are written by women and one by a man and I think that this is a representative romantic poetry. This was in a certain time when the women of the upper class were removed from work. The only man I have chosen, which is Lord Byron, has written not a very Romantic poem, you can see this In two of the other poems I have chosen Villigiature and A Woman To Her Lover. I think that Remember and How Do I Love Thee? Are representatives of the Romantic movement because they stimulate many aspects of the theme of love and the poets do this by showing their love through the poems and I think that A Women to Her Lover, When We Two Parted and Villegiature do not represent the Romantic movement because they write very bitter words in their poems which could hardly be romantic.
The first two I will compare is A Women to her lover is about a women who is fighting with her lover telling him that she is not a slave and she will not sit in the house all day looking after his children. She does not want him to expect her to be “a wingless angel who can do no wrong”, i.e. the ‘perfect wife’. At the end of the poem she says “But lover, if you ask of me/That I shall be your comrade, friend, and mate”. She wants her lover to be passionate about love. She is asking for equality. This poem is a non-reflective poem, portraying a female perspective of love. The moment we read the title of the poem, we think of the word ‘lover’ as portraying equality in regard to gender. It seems significant of modern context for it’s time. Her message she puts across is that women should be equal to men, which could be seen as shocking for its historical context. Other implications of this are the relation of ‘lover’ to cohabitation, which is becoming increasingly common in this day and age. There is also less evidence of a male dominant relationship. This highlights the key theme of the poem, whereby she is getting her message across of demanding equality in a relationship; ‘No servant will I be If that be what you ask, O lover I refuse you!’ in the first stanza, emotions being strongly evident in the romantic period. She introduces ‘conditional love’ as a result. Alongside this, ‘physical love’ is also suggested. The word ‘lover’ tends to bring out the physical aspect of the theme; there is a sense of passion, since there is no reference to marriage. She quotes: ‘my body supple only for your sense delight’. This contrasts her bold and daring nature. She uses words like “comrade”, “friend” and “passion”, which put across a completely different tone, showing her more gentle side. ‘Woman of our time’ Following that, ‘hand holding hand’ also is written without gendering to imply belief of equality in a relationship. The poem is written in free verse. The structure of the poem reflects the narrator’s tone, as she is determinedly commanding freedom and equality, without being restricted by the social construction of her time, whereby the norm was that of a male dominated relationship. The sophisticated writing shows traditional contrast to the seemingly modern topic. Her long syntax causes an empowering tone whereby we can tell she is fixed in what she wants. Her strong character is amplified by her use of powerful language, for instance, words like “bend”, “bondslave” and “drudgery”, show her fearless character and also how strongly she wants equality. She alliterates these words in ‘bondslave to bear’. The structure of her syntaxes also conveys a sense of resolution, for example she confidently uses caesuras: ‘Go! – I am no doll’. This also portrays a conditional balance since it is a direct answer to the solution she aims for. Walsh uses a lot of figurative imagery; and these different types of imagery help amplify the effects the power of love can have on people. Such as use of personification in the last stanza: ‘our co-equal love will make the stars laugh with joy’. Also the words “stars” and “spheres” suggest how love with equality exceeding other characteristics of love. Only in the last stanza we see her address her lover as ‘husband’, whereby we immediately sense the change of tone, with greater respect towards whom she is addressing. The last line of this stanza consists of the lexical fields of religion, which she portrays by use of divine imagery, as she ends the poem with a overjoyed height of happiness: ‘until we reach the very heart of God’. There was a frequent reference to religion in the romantic period context. This shows the nature of the narrator is very believing. She believes in: herself, God, and the way she is treated by her lover can change, despite her social environment.
