Compare How Two Or More Poets Approach The Theme Of Love
Compare How Two Or More Poets Approach The Theme Of Love
A lot of television programmes (soaps) and songs have the theme of love, but until the latter part of the 20th Century, poetry was one main source of entertainment, along with novels and plays. Traditional love poetry is usually romantic, comparing the beloved to inconceivable beauty, Shakespeare's poetry being an example. Young love is also a popular subject. A good poem showing this type of love is John Clare's 'First Love' in which the boy is dumbstruck by the beauty of his first love, "my blood rushed to my face." However poetry, which breaks tradition, is just as interesting if not pleasant. Robert Browning's poems are good examples, some more cheerful than others. There are so many types of love poems including obsessive love, spiritual love, erotic/passionate love and 'sickly' love. Different poets approach the subject of love differently. Some prefer Shakespeare's love others prefer Donne's love.
We have studied and analysed a lot of poems, but I have chosen two poems to compare. The first is Shakespeare's sonnet 'Shall I compare thee..?' It is a classic sonnet with three quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end. I think that this length of poem is perfect for its purpose, which is to explain and explore a single thought. Shakespeare uses intense language. By doing this he gives his love a kind of immortality, the love is everlasting.
The poem begins with a question, "Shall I compare thee to a summers day?", a lively and inviting tone. This is a remarkable claim. Shakespeare is comparing his love with perfection. The question is answered in the next line, "Thou art more lovely and more temperate". This is even more astonishing as he believes her to be more perfect than perfection. Shakespeare changes his tone to show the temporary nature of spring and why summer is not a fair enough comparison, "rough winds do shake the darling buds of Maie." His lady is faultless. Shakespeare then lists the ...
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The poem begins with a question, "Shall I compare thee to a summers day?", a lively and inviting tone. This is a remarkable claim. Shakespeare is comparing his love with perfection. The question is answered in the next line, "Thou art more lovely and more temperate". This is even more astonishing as he believes her to be more perfect than perfection. Shakespeare changes his tone to show the temporary nature of spring and why summer is not a fair enough comparison, "rough winds do shake the darling buds of Maie." His lady is faultless. Shakespeare then lists the poor qualities of summer
"And Sommers lease hath all too short a date."
Shakespeare declares that the sun is sometimes too hot, while other times "his gold complexion dim'd." The personification of the sun is very effective. It is describing summer, while also describing other people's temperament as flawed. However his love's "eternall Sommer shall not fade." She again rises above everything.
Shakespeare then states that his love's beauty will be eternal and she will still be beautiful in her grave,
"Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade."
The couplet states that as long as "Men can breathe or eyes can see," this sonnet will keep his love's beauty alive. Shakespeare's ending is joyful and loving, it confirms all of Shakespeare's thoughts.
The second poem is Robert Browning's poem 'Porphyria's Lover.' This is a very disturbing and thought provoking poem. The poem is narrated by an obsessive lover who considers his love as a possession. She cannot be with him because she is married, "her vainer ties". Obviously she is an upper class citizen and he is not, therefore they cannot be together in the public eye.
The poem has no verses, I think that if Browning had created verses it would have ruined the flow of the poem. The shock in the middle of the poem is so effective because of this.
'Porphyria's Lover' begins with the poet in a depressed state of mind, transferring his mood into the weather, "the sullen wind", an example of personification. This poem uses dark language to convey the lover's emotions, "spite."
'Porphyria's Lover' does however suddenly change tone when Porphyria is likened to a goddess as she "glides" in the door. When she comes in, her presence warms the cottage, "she shut the cold out and the storm." Porphyria then undresses, teasing Browning, letting her long blonde hair fall. "And, at last," she sits down very confidently and calls him. She is clearly in control, telling him she loves him. After Porphyria and her lover have made love, he remembers the situation, she cannot stay with him. She looks up at him, giving him the impression she worships him. The narrator then begins to think of ways to make her his forever, "while I debated what to do." This shows how cold and callous the character is. The repetition of the word 'mine' is used throughout the poem, "she was mine, mine." This is a clever and effective technique, which gets across the lover's irrational thoughts.
Browning suddenly horrifies his readers, "And strangled her". He had killed her using her own hair. This is a very emotive and shocking image.
"In one yellow string I wound
Three times her little throat around."
However Browning alters his language as he kills her. He describes the moment he opens her eyes with a lovely simile "laughed the blue eyes." The lover becomes very absurd claiming that she blushes from his burning kiss, even though she has no sense of touch or passion and her heart is no longer beating. He even thinks that she is joyous when her face still shows the expression of pain and struggle from being strangled. "The smiling little rosy head."
Both of these poems have significant endings, however Porphyria's Lover's' ending is more dramatic. Browning's ending is very controversial, especially when one considers when it was written. "And yet God has not said a word!" meaning that because nothing has happened to the lover by now, God has obviously approved of his actions and motives.
I think that both lovers love their ladies, but with two different types of love. Shakespeare's love is much more spiritual and romantic, this is the traditional love poetry which most people enjoy reading and receiving. Browning's poem is much more controversial. It can be seen as love but a possessive love, almost as though he doesn't respect his lover's independence and life. A lot of people would be envious of Shakespeare's lady and the love they share, while one wouldn't wish Porphyrias love or lover on anyone. I personally prefer Shakespeare's love because it is easier and more pleasant to read, while not being to ornate or 'sickly'. 'Shall I Compare Thee..?' is written to seduce and flatter Shakespeare's lady while 'Porphyria's lover' is a fictional story to show men how dangerous it is to become obsessive and society that women aren't possessions.
These two poems have very contrasting views of love. 'Shall I Compare Thee..?' is a traditional love poem in which Shakespeare's lover is compared to and thought to exceed the greatness of one of life's most perfect things, 'a summers day'. While 'Porphyria's Lover' is a disturbing and heated poem, which deals with sad and depressing issues.
