How is the theme of love and loss explored in these poems: (a)My Last Duchess, and (b) La Belle Dame Sans Merci(c) When We Two Parted (d) Villegiature?

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Q. How is the theme of love and loss explored in these poems:

(a)My Last Duchess                (b) La Belle Dame Sans Merci

                   (c) When We Two Parted        (d) Villegiature?

The poems, ‘My Last Duchess’, ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ and ‘When We Two Parted’ and ‘Villegiature’ by Robert Browning (1812-1889), John Keats (1795-1821), Lord Byron (1788-1824) and Edith Nesbit (1858-1924) respectively, have all been written in the nineteenth century. All these poems deal with the different aspects of love and the different attitudes of lovers towards their beloved, after parting or during times away from each other (Villegiature).

Browning’s ‘My Last Duchess’ shows the possessive and dominant type of love where the Duke, who is speaking throughout the poem, looks upon his wife as an object and treats her in the same way. Though this poem has been written in 1842, the action takes place in the Middle Ages and the inferiority associated with women in those times has been clearly brought out. In the first line of the poem itself the Duke says, “That’s my last Duchess painted on the wall,” conveying his ‘object-like’ treatment of her. Later in the monologue he says ”But to myself they turned (since none puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for you, but I)” which again proves the previous point. Moreover, the fact that the poem starts with “my” and ends with “me” in itself speaks for the overbearing and possessive personality of the Duke. This controlling aspect of love is shown in Keats’s ballad as well, where the knight says, “They cried-‘La Belle Dame sans Merci/Hath thee in thrall!’” This woman, who has power over all the “pale kings and princes too/Pale warriors,” easily dominates over them, conveying the idea that love enslaves and it is an all-domineering feeling. What the poets could be trying to show is how love can, at times, have such control over a person’s actions that he/she is unable to control his/her actions and moves according to his/her partner’s ‘commands’. But, what people in such relationships fail to realise until it is too late is the downside to this sort of relationship, not only for the ‘dominated’, but also for the ‘dominating’, as such an obsession with ruling over another eventually led the Duke to murder his wife. Though most people would not have taken as drastic a measure as the Duke, the poet probably uses such a negatively powerful result to emphasize on the harmful aspects of such a relationship. Also, this poem follows a strict rhyme scheme and has a conversational rhythm. It is written in iambic pentameter, which probably conveys the conflict within himself between what he says and what he really is – a murderer! Furthermore, this sort of communion does not hold many positive aspects for the partner who lets himself/herself be controlled by the other either. In ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’, the knight says, “And that is why I sojourn here/Alone and palely loitering/Though the sedge has wither’d from the lake/And no birds sing”, the sad condition of the knight here emphasizes on the downbeat to this type of love and the sad, lonely image (from winter) is used to create a greater impact on the reader.

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This ‘dominating’ type of affection leads to the next approach to love, which is selfishness and arrogance, which results in unreasonable expectations of one’s partner. This idea has been shown in Byron’s ‘When We Two Parted’, where, even after their relationship broke up, he expects her to be faithful. He accuses her of disloyalty and betrayal, “Thy vows are all broken/And light is they fame/I hear they name spoken/And share in its shame”, but what the poet is trying to bring out through these lines is the intensity of pain and hurt felt by him, which prove his love, but also show ...

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