Keats portrays love in a negative light. I believe that Keats is saying that love always feels wonderful in the beginning but that feeling never lasts and very soon it dies as demonstrated by the metaphor; ‘on thy cheek a fading rose, fast witherth too!’
In contrast John Cooper-Clarke portrays love in a positive light, but he recognises how hard you have to try to make love work. He uses metaphors that suggest protection, comfort and security, for example, ‘let me be your teddy bear,’ suggests that they will always be together through all life’s ups and downs. By using imagery of every day objects he tries to create a warm domestic picture. He appears to be trying to create a picture of reliability trying to convince the unseen lady that he won’t run out, ‘Let me be your electric meter I will not run out.’ However, his words are obsessive and hint at infatuation and not love.
I can find no obvious setting in Cooper-Clarke’s poem ‘I wanna…’ that may suggest that he believes that love is nothing fixed as it remains constant wherever you may go.
In contrast I believe that ‘La Belle…’ has a fixed rural setting and is written in late autumn, ‘The squirrel’s granary is full and the harvests done.’ Indeed, these words in particular create a clever contrast, the squirrel is content, having collected his fruit and happily awaiting hibernation, through the writer contrasting with the representation of autumn as the end of the summer and the start of the cold winter season which relates to the knights misery at the end of his relationship.
‘La Belle…’ is written in two voices, it is introduced by a narrator (i.e. written in the third person) but changes to the first person as the knight starts telling his story, for example, ‘I see a lily on thy brow.’ However, ‘I Wanna…’ is written entirely in the first person-a male voice addresses a female. ‘I don’t wanna be hers, I wanna be yours!’ demonstrates this.
I believe that Cooper-Clarke writes his poem as a monologue but uses a conversational style! However, we hear only one voice that is the man talking to his lady showing the obsessive nature of his love, trying to convince her to trust him again. He does not want to share this with any other person. The words ‘That’s how deep is my emotion, deep, deep, deep,’ demonstrates this.
I believe that Keats employs the ballad form when writing his poem to express the emotional emptiness and despair felt by the knight about his lost love. Traditionally ballads were used to tell stories about the pain of lost love or heroism. ‘And this is why I sojourn here, alone and palely loitering’. This ballad is a sad love song expressing his pain and loss, which I don’t believe, could be demonstrated as effectively in another poetic form.
In ‘La Belle…’ Keats uses a regular structure of four lines per stanza and a fairly regular rhythm. Most stanzas consist of 8,8,8,4 beats per line. The rhythm is slowed in the shorter line reflecting the knight’s draining energy levels. It also ends each stanza abruptly symbolizing the abrupt ending of the knight’s relationship with this mysterious lady. Overall the rhythm is slow to symbolize the sad tone and desolation felt by the knight. I believe this is a clever use of rhythm as it helps emphasise the powerful emotions felt by the knight.
John Cooper-Clarke writes ‘I Wanna…’ in three stanzas. The first two stanzas have a fairly regular eight lines, however, the third has thirteen lines. Additionally, there is a regular rhyme pattern throughout the first two stanzas of ABABCCDE however, the third stanza is much longer and focuses upon the repetition of the word ‘deep’. Therefore there is no regularity of beats per line through the three stanzas it is noticeable that all rhyming couplets have the same number of beats. As the repetition builds and the rhythm is lost the obsessive nature of his love builds and the form demonstrates his desperation to convince her.
Keats uses a number of language devices, for example, his repetition of the word ‘pale’ creates an image of death and sickness. ‘I saw pale kings and princes too, Pale warriors, death-pale were all.’ This evokes an image of other people who have suffered similar broken relationships and pain at the hands of this lady and again represents the death of his relationship and warning that love is dangerous and you risk the pain of rejection. Additionally, the repetition of ‘Cold Hill Side’ reinforces the image of the desolation he feels at his lost love and contrasts starkly to the positive and romantic imagery created at the beginning of the poem. ‘I met a lady in the meads, full beautiful-a farey’s child.’ Finally Keats also uses metaphors to effectively create an image of fading/dying love. ‘And on thy cheek a fading rose,’ portrays an image that although there was once love on this cheek it is now fading, again conveying the idea of negative effects of love.
John Cooper-Clarke also uses language devices to create an appropriate mood. Towards the end of the poem there is intense repetition of the word deep which emphasises the obsessive and desperate nature of his trust. The word deep is cleverly used as it creates an ongoing or never ending image of his love. He also uses endless metaphors all of which relate too everyday objects that would be part of her everyday life for example, ‘let me be your raincoat for those frequent rainy days.’ I think this is because he wants to be as close to this woman as possible for as much of the day as possible. He also uses similes. For example ‘ad deep as the Atlanic Ocean.’ Here he is saying that his love is so huge that she may find an end to it one day but it would be almost impossible.
The meaning of ‘La Belle…’ is the beautiful lady without pity. I believe this is a very appropriate description as although lady is very beautiful, ‘Full beautiful,’ she uses the beauty to seduce the man. However, once she has gained his undying love and trust she abandons him leaving him feeling empty and desolate but she feels no shame.
The lines ‘A Farey’s child’ and ‘her eyes were wild,’ evoke supernatural images and may suggest that this woman is not capable of feeling true love or emotion. I believe this is important because it may symbolise Keats’ own feelings about women and love.
In conclusion these two poets demonstrate very different attitudes towards love. In ‘La Belle…’ Keats appears to be warning people of the dangers of love and particularly the danger of love at first sight. He also underlines the need for equality of commitment if a relationship is to succeed. I believe he also intends to warn the reader that people should not be blinded by physical appearance but an honest character and personality are the vital ingredients for a successful long lasting relationship.
I also believe that Keats’ own personal disillusionment and mistrust of relationships has led to the creation of a poem that suggests that love never lasts and while it may be true to say that love will never remain constant I do not accept his very cynical attitude.
In contrast though I feel that John Cooper-Clarke portrays a much more positive attitude towards love he still appears to be warning the reader that if you want to experience true love, you must first earn the trust and respect of your chosen one.
I like the way that Cooper-Clarke uses imagery of everyday items to show that love encompasses all aspects of live I emphasise with the message that even if you have made a mistake and strayed or broken the trust there is always hope that with sufficient effort you can repair the damage and enjoy the fruits of true love again.
Overall, I am struck by how little the feelings about the concept of love has changed from 1819 to the present day and believe that many people today could identify with the feeling expressed by both poets depending upon their own personal experiences. My personal preference is ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ because it carries a message of hope.
