In this essay I will explore My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose, Meeting At Night and Porphyrias Lover.

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Choose any three poems from the love section which describe or explore different types of love or relationships. Examine those differences and the techniques/devices the poets use to present them.

In this essay I will explore ‘My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose’, ‘Meeting At Night’ and ‘Porphyria’s Lover’.

In ‘My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose’ Burns uses a variety of devices to create imagery of a perfect and timeless love. He uses a simile in the first stanza,

                        ‘My love is like the melodie

                                      That’s sweetly played in tune.’

Playing on the fact that music is tied closely to our emotions, and that a beautiful melody bypasses the mind and travels straight to the heart, Burns links this feeling to love. The rhythm of the poem is upbeat and bouncy, full of energy making his message come across clear and strong, like his love. The rhythm of ‘Meeting At Night’ is also upbeat but it represents gathering anticipation like a quickening heartbeat instead of a steady but bouncy rhythm. It increases in tempo instead of staying continuously up-tempo. Burns uses the senses in ‘My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose’ to capture feelings in the words. By using ‘Red, Red Rose’, nearly all of our senses become engaged, especially that of sight. By repeating ‘red’, Burns draws attention to the colour of the rose. Red symbolises a love that is romantic and sensual, the deeper the red, the more love and so by emphasising the colour Burns tells us how deep and true his love is. The rose itself represents a natural beauty and perfection that can be found within his love and in her. It awakens our senses to the smell of the rose and its sensual feel, again a representation of his love. In the poem, the senses allow the reader to empathise with a feeling of security and timelessness which his love gives, and although the senses are also used in ‘Meeting At Night’, they are used in a different way. They build up suspense and uncertainty by using long vowel sounds and vague senses. Burns also uses possessive phrases such as ‘my bonny lass’ or ‘my dear’ twice in all of the stanzas, apart from the first, when referring to her. These phrases imply that he thinks of her as his own, however this possession is positive, loving and caring unlike in ‘Porphyria’s Lover’. The possession is negative and destructive, adding to the man’s psychosis. Burns also makes full use of universal images,

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                        ‘Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear

                        And the rocks melt wi’ the sun’

These represent love as being for everyone and being everywhere. They also give the reader a feel for the timelessness of his love which will go on for longer than anything else, even when nature’s life

 cycle ends. The first stanza of the poem,

                        ‘My love is like a red, red, rose

                        That’s newly sprung in June’

This symbolises that his love will never change and that he will love her forever as though their love was new. He says that his love will be ...

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