In the poem “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” John Keats explores he idea of a woman loving a man in return because she takes pity on him for loving her. He also shows that at the end this could ultimately cause a lot of emotional pain. In the poem John Keats explains that he fell in love with a woman, but she only pretends to love him and at the end she does him a lot of harm. “And sure the in language strange she said, I love thee true.” Here we can see that she actually tells him that she loves him too, which isn’t true. She uses this as a form of trickery so that she can manipulate him into loving her. She then tricks him into sleep. “And there she lulled me to sleep” the word “lulled” is suggesting the trickery because the word lulled means a kind of trickery. In the next stanza John Keats finds out that she has captured many men before in the same way as he has been tricked. “ I saw pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death-pale were they all, who cry’d--- ‘La belle dame sans merci hath thee in thrall.’” This gives John Keats then the negative aspects of love it physical and emotional. “I see a lily on thy brow.” Is related to death, which is suggestion that the pain is being physical because of the strength of the emotional pain.
In the poem “Woman To Her Lover” Christina Walsh writes to her lover about how she doesn’t want to be treated when they marry. This is suggesting that Christina Walsh is a strong woman; she is self-confident and tells her lover what she wants and if she doesn’t get it she wont hesitate to reject him and not marry him. “If that be what you ask, O lover, I refuse you” this is suggesting that if her lover wants her just for his pleasure and for normal housework or if he thinks about himself as a “conqueror” to overrule her, she will turn him down.
In the second paragraph she starts with the word “or” which is suggesting an alternative. The alternative is, if he thinks that she is one of these perfect woman, that was send from heaven and that she’s a wingless angel then she will refuse to marry him. She doesn’t want to be a perfect woman. She wants to be like every other woman. “Or if you think to wed with one from heaven sent, who’s every deed and word and wish is golden, a wingless angel who can do no wrong, Go! – I am no doll to dress sit for feeble worship.” She considers their perfect women as dolls that get worshiped, and his is not what she wants. She wants to be a normal woman. Also in the third stanza she explains how she doesn’t want to be just there to “satisfy” her lover with sex. “My body supple only for your sense of delight.” She says here that if you think that you can do with my body what you want, the there will be no marriage.
But then in the last stanza she makes the poem seem more as a positive aspect of love. She says that if you don’t want me for all the things she listed in the stanzas before then yes she will marry him. But she wants to be equal to him. “That I shall be your comrade, friend and mate” If she gets to be equal and if she doesn’t count as a perfect woman or angel without wings then yes she will marry him. “Then, O husband, I am yours forever” Christina Walsh has put a indirect negative aspect of love in the first three stanzas but then in the last one she put in the positive aspects of love in. The poet has overall experienced a positive feeling of love as we can see from the last stanza where she tells us what she expects from her lover when they marry.
Christina Rossetti writes of a happy, positive experience of love. In the poem “A Birthday” she writes about how much she is in love with one man. She uses simple similes to explain how she feels about being in love. “My heart is like a singing bird”;” My heart is like an apple-tree”. Te poet shows us how beautiful her love experience is by using the simple rhythm scheme and childlike imagery. We can see that she uses childlike imagery because she uses very simple words like “singing bird” or “apple-tree”
The second stanza is developing the ideas explored in the first stanza. It becomes more exotic and less childlike and simple. Here she explains that her love is very precious, she compares him to the French symbol the “fleurs-de-lys” saying the love us royal and high class. “In the leaves and silver fluers-de-lys”. Also she tells us that her love experience is permanent. It’s “carved” into her life. “Carve it in doves and pomegranates.” Overall the poem tells us that Christina Rossetti had experienced a very happy and positive experience of love.
In the poem “To _____” by Thomas Moore he explains that his experience of love is happy and very exiting. He tells us that he loves loving his wife or girlfriend but also loves hating her. His love experience is unique because of his love towards loving her and hating her. We can see that he loves his mistress in the first stanza “When I loved you, I can’t but allow I had many an exquisite minute:” In the second stanza he then tells us that he enjoys hating the person he loves. “And, oh! ‘Tis delicious to hate you”. Thomas Moore is enjoying the contrast between hating her and loving her. This could suggest that the feeling of love can very quickly turn into hate.
In the poem “sonnet 130” by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare tells us about his experience about the woman he loves. (The woman he is in love with is the total opposite then the woman that you would of considered as a wingless angel at that time.) His poem about her is pretty harsh towards her. He is writing about all the “negative” things that the woman has “than in the breath that from my mistress reeks.” But Shakespeare is deeply in love with her even if she is the total opposite then a woman was considered to be like at that time. Shakespeare experiences a positive, exiting part of love. “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare”.
By studying the collection of poems I have learnt that love can have many different sides, including a negative and a positive aspect. Many people cannot live without love. Love is a central emotion for a person’s life even when it becomes painful. People have experienced a lot of emotions when they are in love. Some feel pain and depressions others feel happiness and a completion of their lives. Love is a very, very strong emotion.