“…and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.”
In this way her theme also differs from that of Shakespeare’s because she implies that her love will last after death; that when she leaves this world and all earthly restrictions are undone she may love him as purely as the love of the saints. This theme is also dissimilar to the one described by Robert Burns in ‘Red, Red Rose’. Within his poem he describes his love as ‘new’ and his love does not indicate a sense of eternity. Unlike Browning and more similarly to Shakespeare he creates a sense of the love vanishing after death. Both Shakespeare and Burns state that their love will only last until the end of the world; “So long as men can breathe and eyes can see.” (Shakespeare.) “Till a' the seas gang dry… And the rocks melt wi’ the sun” (Burns.)
Christina Rossetti’s love is neither a way of expressing love nor stating that she is in love. Her theme of love is one tinged with a sense of loss and a gentle reminder that it is not good to grieve for our lost loves if it makes us sad as reflected in the last lines;
“Better by far that you should forget and smile
Than you should remember and be sad.”
Rossetti also is not declaring the way she feels about love of her lover. She is expressing her sorrow that she must die and leave him and also the aspect she wishes her lover to think of her death as. In ‘So We’ll Go No More A-Roving’ Lord Bryon, also, is neither declaring his love nor describing how he felt whilst in love. Instead, he is trying to portray the emptiness and sorrow that losing love has left him with, thus striking a similarity with Rossetti’s ‘Remember’.
Lord Bryon similarly describes a love that is lost however his love is already over, whereas Rossetti’s poem is preparing for the future. Bryon’s theme of love contains a slight sense of bitterness and sorrow that the relationship has ended. Some have interpreted this poem so that the relationship was not ended because Bryon wished it, but rather that his lover ended it. This interpretation was drawn from the line, “the heart be still as loving,” which implies that the relationship ended despite Bryon still loving the woman. The second verse also seems to describe the love as ‘outwearing’ itself; “the sword outwears its sheath,” and “the soul wears out the breast.” This can be interpreted as Bryon stating that his lover grew weary of him and the love and relationship they shared died.
Another contrast between the five poems and the theme of love within them can be unearthed through the very ways the poets express their love. For example, within ‘Sonnet’s from the Portuguese’, Browning describes her love for her husband in every way that she can think of, as revealed in the opening line; “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” Browning then expands this by literally counting the strongest ways she can describe her love through the constant use of imagery: “I love thee with the breath, Smiles, tears, of all my life!”
However, this is dissimilar to the way Shakespeare declares his love. In Sonnet XVIII he uses only one main foundation of imagery to describe his love: “a summer’s day”. Shakespeare does not name all the ways he loves this person, he merely compares them to a summer day and uses the different aspects and associations of summer to make his point. For example, he mentions the sun as “the eye of heaven” and personifies death also implying that death has ‘shade’ as in summer the shadows are darkest at strongest.
Burns, however, in ‘Red, Red Rose’, uses a large quantity of natural imagery such as “my luve’s like a red, red rose” and also describes his love lasting until
“All the seas gang dry…
And the rocks melt wi’ the sun…
…While the sands O life shall run.”
These powerful uses of imagery create a strong sense of love and intensify the emotion portrayed to the reader, similar to the effect of Browning’s use imagery throughout her sonnet.
Another example of this can be found in Lord Bryon’s ‘So We’ll Go No More A-Roving’ through his extensive use of imagery in the second verse. The imagery implies that the love Bryon is describing as once being sharp and glittering like a sword, that it was passionate and came from the soul, that his heart was almost bursting with love and the love seemed eternal, which creates a powerful and moving image in the mind of the reader.
To conclude, the themes of love are varied in many ways throughout the five poems and there are few similarities between all five. In ‘…A-Roving’ and ‘Remember’ both Bryon’s and Rossetti’s themes differ from the rest in that they describe a love that has ended or will end soon, whereas Shakespeare and Burns declare their love lasting till the end of the world and Browning goes even further to state that her love will last and even improve after death. The amount of imagery used within the poems varies as well as the theme. Bryon, Shakespeare and Rossetti make little use of imagery which contrasts with the extravagant use of imagery win the poems by Browning and Burns. The way in which the imagery is used is another difference between the poems, for Browning, Burns, Bryon and Shakespeare use the imagery to compare and represent their love whereas Rossetti uses imagery to describe the “vestige of thoughts” she leaves behind.
