. How do the poets convey their attitudes toward love and loss in the poems ' a woman to her lover' 'first love' 'remember' and ' when we two parted'?

NAME OF CANDIDATE: JOHN RUSH LIM RENDOR

TITLE OF ASSIGNMENT: HOW DO THE POETS CONVEY THEIR ATTITUDES TOWARDS LOVE AND LOSS IN THE POEMS: ‘A WOMAN TO HER LOVER’ ‘FIRST LOVE’ ‘REMEMBER’ AND ‘WHEN WE TWO PARTED’?

PURPOSE OF TASK: CONVEY THE POETS ATTITUDES TOWARDS LOVE AND LOSS IN THESE POEMS.

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 17/ MAY / 2003

STIMULUS MATERIAL: TRACKS/TRACKS 2

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: FIRST DRAFT

Q. How do the poets convey their attitudes toward love and loss in the poems ‘ a woman to her lover’ ‘first love’ ‘remember’ and ‘ when we two parted’?

The poem ‘ a woman to her lover’ was written by Christina Walsh. The poem starts of with a question, ‘do you come to me to bend me to your will?’ throughout the poem, the basic atmosphere of loss is evident.

Within the first stanza itself there is marital imagery relating to the sense of power and dominance. ‘ in drudgery and silence’, she tries to portray how she is helpless to protest, she begins the poem with this relationship, the dominance of man over woman, ‘to make of me a bondslave’ in this stanza she is explaining one of the types of relationships between a man and woman. She also gives out a feeling that if the relationship were as what she described she would be wasting her life, and tries to give out women’s point of view to these types of situations. She seems quite certain of what she wants in life and this does not seem to be it, ‘ if that be what you ask, O Lover I refuse you!’And her point is to prove that if that was the man’s view of the relationship, that it would not be possible to commit to that.

In the second stanza she does not keep it as long as the first or any of the others as she does not want to dwell on it. The very idea of the man thinking the woman to be perfect and ‘one from heaven sent’ is what she rejects. When she describes women to be perfect her tone is very mocking. ‘ a wingless angel who can do no wrong’ she tries to convey that that would be someone who would have no freedom. ‘Go’ this implies how she rejects him if he wishes the relationship to be anything like this as well.

In the third stanza, she uses sensual imagery, ‘clamorous desire,’ ‘skin soft’ ‘fond caresses’ ‘body supple’ ‘sense delight’. She talks of a relationship based on sex. That the love shared between them is fueled and continued only by the physical relationship between them. She rejects more fiercely this type of idea of man, ‘Oh shame , and pity and abasement’ she considers it to be and insult for all women and completely degrading.

‘Wakened woman’ her use of alliteration is to emphasize to woman to know their worth. The last line of the stanza also holds a universal meaning, ‘not for you the hand of any wakened woman of our time.

The last stanza of the poem is in contrast to all the others. We see here the tone changes, it softens, ‘But Lover’. She speaks of equality at home and speaks of a partner who will share what life has to offer with the other. She uses the word ‘height’ to show the depth of feelings in togetherness. She gives the ...

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‘Wakened woman’ her use of alliteration is to emphasize to woman to know their worth. The last line of the stanza also holds a universal meaning, ‘not for you the hand of any wakened woman of our time.

The last stanza of the poem is in contrast to all the others. We see here the tone changes, it softens, ‘But Lover’. She speaks of equality at home and speaks of a partner who will share what life has to offer with the other. She uses the word ‘height’ to show the depth of feelings in togetherness. She gives the impression that she would give herself to him forever ‘I am yours forever’ if he would treat her the way she wishes. She uses musical images as well, ‘bridal march’ ‘music of the spheres’, ‘circling fugue’, they bring out the harmony in the relationship, she wishes for equality, to be equal partners in the journey of life. And the last line talks of Christian faith, that even God and the universe would be happy with this type of relationship, of perfect equality. It shows what she wants with her lover.

The four stanzas speak of four separate different relationships, she analyses here the man and woman relationship she had in her society and what we still have nowadays.

The poem First Love is written by John Clare. The entire poem is about love at first sight. In the first line the poem uses the word ‘struck’ which shows the forcefulness of love. The lines ‘With love so sudden and so sweet’ we see here the unexpected nature of the situation. And how he is greatly affected by the woman’s physical beauty and this first experience of love is very powerful.

The also describes his senses and exactly the effect that she had on him., ‘my legs refused to walk away’, which shows his physical reaction and exactly how shocked and stunned he was. Just stressing this superficial love, because love it not about physical beauty but inmost beauty and character. There is a tone of excitement and thrill in the beginning.

The poet talks of excitement and confusion and sensual awakening in the second stanza, ‘my blood rushed to my face’, ‘and took my sight away’. Shows just how overwhelmed he is. ‘words from my eyes did start’ he expresses himself without words, without saying anything, only his eyes spoke a million words. ‘spoke as chords do from the string’ this links music to love. ‘and blood burnt round my heart’, this emphasizes the excitement that he feels even more. The first two stanzas speak of the emotion of love and how he is overwhelmed by it.

In the third stanza he uses nature imagery, ‘are flowers the winter’s choice’ this is contradictory as flowers don’t grow in winter, and winter is a symbol of death, yet he links it to her to try to express the feelings that her beauty had upon him. ‘is love’s bed always snow’ trying to show the cold side of love, and how she seems not to relate to his emotions to her, he asks a rhetorical question and it’s conflicting imagery denotes confusion in his own mind. The tone in the end is one of despair; it is just typical infatuation of first love, the poet is trying to say that true love can only be reciprocated, it cannot be one sided, and there is no future for one sided love. Hence there are feelings of doubt and feelings of him being unsure. ‘and can return no more’ he speaks of how he feels he is in love with her, yet she does not share in it, and he cannot get over her. The whole poem talks about intense love.

In the poem ‘Remember’ there is defiantly talk of pain and love. It is written by Christina Rossetti, she is an early Victorian poet. The poem is a sonnet.

It is the reflection of the times. The sense that death was a common feature as there was lack of medical help. Everyone has experienced a death of a loved one, the people had a strong faith although there was a lot of pain and suffering. Here the poet is showing her faith by talking to her lover. In the first half of the sonnet she is very stubborn; she keeps on insisting ‘remember me’. The first line is a typical description of death; remember me when I am gone away’, the ideal that death brings because of her fear of death. She explains that when she would die, what she wishes for him to do, or what he can and should do, when he would not be able to tell her anymore of their future together, ‘Only remember me, you understand’, she is emphasizing, the fear and insecurity that death brings. Her selfishness, all this would bring him pain, and she appears to be selfish and self-centered. The first eight lines are called the octave of the sonnet. She is insisting, telling him not to forget her.

In the second part of the poem is known as the sestet of the poem, in the lines ‘yet if you should forget me for a while’, here she uses for the first time the word forget, this shows that she is becoming less selfish and less self-centered. So she is putting herself in the shoes of her lover, ‘and afterwards remember do not grieve’ this shows that she does not want him to feel guilty about him forgetting her for a while, ‘for if the darkness and corruption leave’, she knows how you can be carried away by the temptations of the world, so it displays the typical Victorian attitude. ‘better by far you should forget and smile, than you should remember and be sad’ if forgetfulness bring you joy than it is okay to forget about me, so she shows that she wishes for him to be happy as she can no longer be there with him. In the sestet her feelings change, she becomes less selfish and as time goes the pain decreases slowly, in the sestet the focus is on the lover, emphasizing how time is a great healer.

There are contrasted words and images used throughout the poem, the word forget is contrasted with remember, and smile is contrasted with sad, this is to show the confusion in the poets mind, we see that the poem is passing from immaturity in the octave and mature in the second half, that is the sestet. The first tone shows pain, sorrow, despair and confusion, and in the second there is mellowness and the acceptance of the reality of death.

‘When we two parted’ is a poem written by Lord Byron. The poem starts with conventional images of pain and grief of parting. ‘In silence and tears’. The first lines indicated that they decided it was best for them to part. They might’ve discussed it. ‘To sever for years’. The poem was written long after they had parted just showing the continuing pain even long after they had separated. The words ‘pale’, ‘cold’ ‘colder thy kiss’, and give out a sense of death. It seems that there is still pain and sorrow even now.

It has effected him so strong, he remembers the morning they parted, ‘the dew of the morning’, ‘thy vows are all broken’ that promises prove false through the passing of time. ‘I hear thy name spoken and share in its shame’ when people talk about her we see his pain. And the pain has only increased with the years. ‘And light is thy fame’, he is referring to the looseness of her character. The words ‘knell’, ‘shudder’, they all show the pain that her name gives him. ‘Why wert thou so dear?’ he is in so much pain that he asks himself why she has such and affect upon him. ‘They know not I knew thee’ and the irony being that he knew her so well. ‘Too deeply to tell’, it is too deep for words, the pain and the sorrow cannot be expressed my way of mouth. It seems that in their relationship, which was such joy are the causes of all his regret and pain.

In the last stanza he uses alliteration to emphasize on the pain, and he has an inability to express emotions, so he is all bottled up inside, and has no one to talk to, no one to help him release his pain, and even if he did, he had no words to speak , which is showing irony. We see the same images like in the beginning in the lines, ‘how should I greet thee?’ ‘with silence and tears’ there is a different meaning in this now, they do not understand each other now, but in the beginning they knew each other so well because over the years she has changed so much. The pain and sadness seems to intensify, ‘cold kiss, chill on my brow, knell to my ear’, these are all traditional images of rejected love. The poems octave stanza and regular eight lines, show the continuity of his pain.

Throughout all these four poems the poets convey all their attitudes towards love and loss by expressing themselves in situations of love with others, of experiencing it and hence showing reactions and feelings that evolve from certain situations. They show that they feel love is a great thing, and for one to really know the true meaning of love, they need to experience loss and pain the be able to value love to its deserved potential.