“That moment she was mine, mine, fair, Perfectly pure and good: I found A thing to do, and all her hair In one long yellow string I wound Three times her little throat around, And strangled her.”
This theme of tainted love is continued in ‘A Trampwoman’s Tragedy’, with jealous love also occurring in this poem. The trampwoman’s boyfriend became jealous after she started to flirt with ‘jeering’ John. Consequently, the boyfriend stabbed and killed John.
“Then up he sprung, and with his knife – And with his knife He let out jeering Johnny’s life,”
In this poem, the jealous love is basically the same as in the last. A character is worried about their lover betraying them for someone else. In ‘A T. ’s Tragedy’, this is shown by the line, “my lover’s dark distress.” Teasing about love is also addressed in this poem. This is a very dangerous thing to do, as peoples’ emotions are at stake, and they can easily be damaged. The trampwoman’s boyfriend has his emotions played around with, to devastating effect. The trampwoman teases her boyfriend in the lines,
“Whose is the child you are like to bear? – His?” , ”God knows ‘twas not! But, O despair! I nodded – still to tease.”
This love gone wrong contrasts sharply with that in ‘The Eve Of St. Agnes’. The love in this poem, although being forbidden, is very romantic, and also reciprocal. Two young lovers successfully escape from the girl’s castle, and elope together, to live happily ever after (or so we are led to believe),
“And they are gone: ay, ages long ago These lovers fled away into the storm.”
The ‘happy ever after’ type of love in this poem almost make it seem like some sort of fairy tale. It is pleasant to see something a little less gloomy in these poems. The feeling of happiness in ‘The E. Of St. A.’ is shown by phrases such as,
“Whose heart had brooded, all that wintry day, On love, and winged St. Agnes’ saintly care,”
Phrases like that really help to emphasize the feeling of love the characters are experiencing in the poem.
‘The Lady Of Shalott’ contrasts with this happy love, to revert back to the dark love that was seen in the other two poems. Unrequited, or unfulfilled love, is experienced in this poem. The lady sees Sir Lancelot, and goes against her curse by trying to follow him. She dies. The love and affection that she instantly felt for him was strong enough for her to cause her own death. The irony is that Sir L. actually thought she wasn’t bad looking, “He said, ‘She has a lovely face’ ”. I prefer this love , as I find it more interesting than straight forward happy endings.
In ‘P.’s L.’, the lover’s fondness for Porphyria is illustrated by the alliterated phrase, “Perfectly pure and good”. Browning uses personification to give an image of the very strong winds, at the beginning of the poem, “It tore the elm-tops down for spite”.
Alliteration is used by Tennyson in ‘The L. Of S.’ to emphasize Sir L.’s glory, when describing him, “his blazoned baldric slung”. He also describes Sir L. using a simile, which gives us a bright picture of his armored helmet, “Burned like one burning flame together”.
Keats, in ‘The E. Of St. A.’, uses a metaphor, “Music’s golden tongue”, to describe how loud and far reaching the music is to the beadsman. You can tell he feels sad that he is out in the cold, and people nearby are dancing and having fun. Keats also uses alliteration in describing the food Porphyro gets for Madeline, making it sound tasty, “jellies soother than the creamy curd”.
In ‘A T.’s T.’, Hardy blends in some symbolism, which adds an extra sense of sadness to the end of the poem. It helps to describe the trampwoman’s unhappiness and loneliness, after losing all of her friends, “The red moon low declined”.
Although all the poems are based around love, and most have this linked with death, they are all subtly different. Each highlights a different aspect of love, which affect people in different ways.
