Porphyria's Lover Analysis
'Porphyria's lover' by Robert Browning is the description of an intimate night-time meeting between a man, the lover and narrator, and a woman, Porphyria. The word Porphyria itself is a medical disorder which involves painful symptoms - this suggests that something painful will happen to the girl sometime in the poem. Within the first couple of lines Browning set the mood for the poem, 'the sullen wind was soon awake, it tore the elm-tops down for spite,' It's a description of the elements battling it out in the dark of the night, which is perhaps a metaphor for a prior argument between lovers. The timing of the meeting, in the middle of the night, may suggest that this was a secret assignation, something that was always going to happen, like it was fate. At the start of this poem, Browning suggests that Porphyria was once blinded by her pride and vanity and rejected the lover; however he suggests that she gave in to her passions and pursued him. Porphyria then 'shut the cold and the storm' out as if the lover had been sitting in the cottage with doors and windows open, exposed to the weather, and she comes to close the doors and window. This imagery may represent a desire to stop arguing, to calm the storm. She then proceeds into the warm cottage and take off her sodden clothes, 'withdrew the dripping cloak and shawl.' She then speaks to her lover however he doesn't respond
An Analysis of "Give all to Love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson.
An Analysis of "Give all to Love" by Ralph Waldo Emerson The thoughts and feelings of Ralph Waldo Emerson are uplifting, empowering and can make one feel like their actions matter in a world surrounded by cynicism and despair. His poem "Give all to love" hints briefly at the pain he experienced in his life and his views on love and the human experience. It also demonstrates the style of writing of the transcendentalists. In order to understand Emerson's writing one must first understand the man. Emerson is a deeply spiritual man, owing mainly to his background. He was a Unitarian minister, until he realized that Unitarianism was yet another box or construct out of which he needed to break. Influenced by such schools of thought as English romanticism, Neoplatonism, and Hindu philosophy, Emerson is noted for his skill in presenting his ideas eloquently and in poetic language. Emerson was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Seven of his ancestors were ministers, and his father, William Emerson, was minister of the First Church (Unitarian) of Boston. Emerson graduated from Harvard University at the age of 18 and for the next three years taught school in Boston. In 1825 he entered Harvard Divinity School, and the next year he was sanctioned to preach by the Middlesex Association of Ministers (Lesburg 4). Despite ill health, Emerson delivered occasional sermons in churches in the