Pre 1914 Love Poetry
Pre 1914 Love Poetry Love has been conveyed in numerous ways throughout pre 1914 poetry. It has always been a popular subject to write about as it is such a fundamental human emotion, and one of the strongest. There are many ways to express themes of love in poetry, and different forms have surfaced during the different periods, to tie in with the popular culture of that particular time. The love poetry during the Romantic period was mostly aimed at trying to entice women, often by comparing their beauty to the beauty of nature and using pastoral idylls. Some of the poems we have been studying do just that. The Passionate Shepherd to His Love is one of the earliest poems we have studied. It is a pastoral idyll, written by Christopher Marlowe in 1599, at the time of the Renaissance, and it contains a lot of pastoral imagery. The word 'Renaissance' literally means 'rebirth of the Arts'. New ideas were entering the minds of society as this was the time of mathematicians and philosophers like Galileo and world explorations led by Walter Raleigh, Barents and Drake. Christopher Marlowe himself was an Elizabethan poet and dramatist. He had a fiery temper, and died in a pub brawl at the tender age of twenty-nine. The poem itself is not difficult to understand; Marlowe is trying to seduce his lover. He tempts her by telling her all the wonderful things he will do for her if she
Compare A women to her lover by Christina Walsh, How do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, When we two parted by Lord Byron, Remember by Christina Rossetti and Villegiature by Edith Nesbit.
Comparative Essay I will attempt to compare A women to her lover by Christina Walsh, How do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning, When we two parted by Lord Byron, Remember by Christina Rossetti and Villegiature by Edith Nesbit. In the poems I have chosen four are written by women and one by a man and I think that this is a representative romantic poetry. This was in a certain time when the women of the upper class were removed from work. It is instructed that only man I have chosen, which is Lord Byron, has written not a very Romantic poem. The first two I will attempt to compare is A women to her lover is about a women who is fighting with her lover telling him that she is not a slave and she will not sit in the house all day looking after his children. She does not want him to expect her to be "a wingless angel who can do no wrong", i.e. the 'perfect wife'. At the end of the poem she says "But lover, if you ask of me/That I shall be your comrade, friend, and mate". She wants her lover to be passionate about love. She is asking for equality. The poem Remember by Christina Rossetti telling her lover to remember her when she is dead. At the end of the poem she says "Better by far that you should forget and smile/Then that you should remember and be sad". Here she is telling her lover that she rather him forget and be happy and live his life then to be sad.
What is this thing called love?
What is this thing called love? This simple question begs for an answer. The symptoms of love are familiar enough. A drifting mooniness in one's behavior and thought, the fact that it seems as though the whole universe has rolled itself up into the person of the beloved, something so wonderful that no one on earth has ever felt about a fellow creature before. Love is ecstasy and torment, freedom and slavery. Love makes the world go round. Until recently, scientists wanted nothing to do with it. The reason being that love is life's most intense feeling and love is mushy. Science is hard. Anger and fear are emotions that have been researched in labs and can be quantified through measurements. Pulse and breathing rates, muscle contractions, etc. Love cannot be charted or measured. Anger and fear have a definite roll in human survival: fighting or running. Love does not. And since it is possible for humans to mate and reproduce without love, all the swooning and sighing is beside the point. Up until the past decade, serious scientists assumed that love was all in the head. Now the research has become more intense. This may be because of the spreading of AIDS and that casual sex carries mortal risks. Others point to the growing number of female scientists and suggest that they may be more willing then their male colleagues to take love seriously. Whatever the reason, science has
“My Box” and “Valentine”.
"My Box" and "Valentine" The poems 'My Box' and 'Valentine' are both based around love. Both poems contain a present given to or received by their partner. ' My Box' by Gillian Clarke is a poem about a box a lover produces himself for his lover. The box symbolises the couple's relationship and memories - as "in my box are twelve black books, where I have written down how we have sanded, oiled and planed..." The box symbolises the memories and the joyous day they shared together. Although the lover has "made the box," it has been created by emotions, feeling and love. The box becomes the romantic image within the poem. In this box are stored memories of the couple's relationship. At the end of each stanza, the poet refers to a "golden tree." This golden tree plays a significant part in the poem, as it reflects the solidness of their relationship. The tree represents the building and growing up of a beautiful relationship - having the branches representing the ups and downs of their time together. 'Valentine' on the other hand, has a far stranger meaning of love than My Box. The title tells you that the poem is a valentine - a gift of love - but straight away the poem makes it clear that it is not an ordinary type of valentine "not a red rose or a satin heart," rejecting conventional presents, as she gives an onion. It seems rather strange that someone would give their
Relationships - something which creates bonds between people and is unable to be broken by physical force or by spoken words
Relationships Relationships cannot be defined by a contract, a statement or a textbook. It is something that cannot be detected by our five senses; we just accept that it exists. A relationship is something which creates bonds between people and is unable to be broken by physical force or by spoken words. Like the formation, the ending of a relationship can only be achieved mutually. Although relationships are not concrete objects, it cannot be denied that it carries a certain importance. As can be seen from 'A Walk to Remember', Jamie Sullivan's cancerous condition had upset both her and Landon's lives. Yet it is due to each other's ongoing love and support, were they able to accept this as the truth and make the best of the situation. Jamie died without a single regret in her life, and Landon, through meeting Jamie, had changed from the local bad-boy to a successful man that Jamie would've been proud of. Another example is the movie 'Monsters Inc.', where we learn that interdependence is just as important as independence. Through the trust that comes with a relationship, best-friends Sulley and Mikey were successfully able to defeat the villains and save the day in the most clichéd way possible. However, we cannot overlook the presence of 'bad' relationships. Its importance is to balance the equation. Like everything in the world, relationships must also have the
Three Traditional Ballads - The Griesly Wife, Frankie and Johnny and The Ballad of Charlotte Dymond.
The Griesly Wife is a great poem which reveals a significant moral in life. This ballad says that forcing a woman into something which you desire and she does not is a wrong thing; there are different consequences and results of your off-balance actions. The poem has us paying attention to a serious scenario which teaches us a lesson. This ballad has a man punished for his mislead mistakes, having not known that his wife was not ready to be in his arms just yet. Emotions and feelings are thoroughly twisted to hold the reader's attention. This poem is the original version unlike stories which change along the line. There are descriptions about the night and how the newly married bride ran away. She ran away barefooted as she did not want to wake the man, this was the purpose of the bride. In the third stanza we can understand that the man tries to catch up with the wife but he can't. As he cannot find his wife he gets angry. "He trod the trail wherever it turned" means that he searched everywhere for his wife. His wife had travelled a distance barefooted as this is mentioned in the second stanza "The young wife went with never a word barefooted to the door." He was alone on the path, but he still kept up the search. He attempted every more and kept on eye on the footsteps as the floor was buried in snow. Echoes and voices bounced back at him, this is a translation to "And
'Looking For Dad,' and 'The Sick Equation' by Brian Patten, and 'Long Distance' by Tony Harrison are all poems about family relationships. I am going to discuss the different themes of family relationships and compare each one.
'Looking For Dad,' and 'The Sick Equation' by Brian Patten, and 'Long Distance' by Tony Harrison are all poems about family relationships. I am going to discuss the different themes of family relationships and compare each one to see which is most effective. 'The Sick Equation' is about a boy whose parents are constantly arguing with each other. Because of this, the boy began to believe that love did not really exist, as he had grown up around people who never loved each other. He thought that even if his parents did stay together, someone, maybe even him, would get hurt. 'For by becoming two, one at least would suffer so' I think the poet would rather his mum and dad be separated, because all they do when they are together is argue, and it just causes more pain, not just between the two of them, but for him also. He preferred to stay at school, away from the fighting because the pain he suffered at school was worse than that of going to school. 'All that household's anger and its pain Stung more than any teachers cane' I think he found school as a refuge, as it was a place he could get away from all the fighting and arguing that went on at home. 'In school I learned that one and one made two,' I think the poet opens the poem with this statement because it is a fact that cannot be argued with. It is definite. However, when it comes to real life, it is not that
Visiting hour
Visiting hour Visiting hour by Norman MacCaig is a poem in which MacCaig uses a variety of techniques to convey his emotions. In his word choice it helps us relate to his sadness in this event. MacCaig starts the poem by setting the scene he is in a hospital visiting a friend. In the first stanza MacCaig is uncomfortable in his surroundings he is very apprehensive towards the hospital. For instance "The hospital smell combs my nostrils" this suggests the idea that the hospital smells but for MacCaig he can't just smell it he can feel it as if the smell was brushing his noise hair. MacCaig has started the poem with a contrast in a joke like manner this develops the idea of his light heartedness at the start. MacCaig uses the technique of repetition to emphasis his feelings. For example "I will not feel, I will not feel". This makes us the reader more aware that he is in fact feeling something he is in denial and can't take the situation in. But he knows that he will have to soon have to let go and stop hiding it all inside. When MacCaig reaches his relative he is feeling very sad and shocked as if he is just realizing how bad and ill his relative is. For instance "And between her and me distance shrinks till there is none left but the distance of pain that neither she nor I can cross". This tells us that MacCaig is overwhelmed by his emotions as if he can't cope with this
How love is expressed and what love means.
Nancy Kuo Introduction to Literature Poetry 31 Dec. 2002 How love is expressed and what love means Love is the most beautiful thing in one's life, and many artists have tried to praise it in many ways. I am going to use 3 poems, "A red, Red Rose", "Love Is Not All: It Is Not Meat nor Drink" and "Sonnet 116", to discover how they express the significance of love and what the importance it is that love would be in man's mind. Love is an abstractive concept; therefore, poets have to use concrete elements to show the depth of love. Instead of using a lot of adjectives to describe love, it is better to use objects which we can see, touch, smell and hear. Let's look at "A Red, Red Rose." Robert Burns use two similes to compare love to a very red rose and melody which is played in tune. Therefore, we can see the passionate color red as love's passion, touch the soft petals of love's flower, rose, as love's fragility and hear music of satisfaction when two lovers fall in love. It is more vivid when speaker used overstatements to vow his determination to love his dear. Such as "till a' the seas gang dry(8)" and "while the sands o'life shall run(12)" both exaggerate oaths lovers can actually make. People say romantic words of such to sigh with emotion so we can even feel the love's heat of the speaker. The poem is full of romantic words and overstatements. Therefore, it
In What ways are Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Barrett Browning similar in their attitudes to Love and men?
In What ways are Edna St. Vincent Millay and Elizabeth Barrett Browning similar in their attitudes to Love and men? A sonnet is a poem that always has fourteen lines. There are two types of sonnet; the Pertrachan and the Shakespearean. "What lips my lips have kissed", is a Petrarchan by Edna St Vincent Millay. This means that it is made up of either a sestet and an octet or an octet and a sestet. In this case it is an octet and a sestet. "Pity me not" also by Edna St Vincent Millay is a Shakespearean sonnet, this means that it is made up of three quatrains and one couplet at the end. "How do I love thee?" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is a Petrarchan and is made up of sestet and an octet. All of these three sonnets have been written in different ways but are all equally meaningful. Edna St. Vincent Millay was born in Rockland, Maine on February 22nd 1892. Her mother, Cora encouraged Edna St Vincent Millay and her three sisters to be ambitious and self-sufficient, teaching them an appreciation of music and literature from an early age. Edna St. Vincent Millay began to write poetry from a young age, and became very involved with theatre. Edna St Vincent Millay was a feminist, which was reflected in her poetry. Edna St Vincent Millay continued to write poetry throughout her life until she died in 1950. Elizabeth Moulton-Barrett was born March 6, 1806 at Coxhoe Hall, Durham,