Poetry comparison

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Hashim Dayah

Poetry coursework

We have been studying love poems, each with their own, unique meaning. The six poems that I will be analysing are: ‘First Love’ by John Clare,

                                             ‘How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning,

                                             ‘A Birthday’ by Christina Rossetti,

                                             ‘A Woman to Her Lover’ by Christina Walsh.

                                             ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ by John Keats.

                                            ‘To His Coy Mistress’ by Andrew Marvell.

Each poem gives a different point of view of love. E.g. “First Love” is about a man who has fallen in love for the first time, he shares his emotions and feeling with us. “How Do I Love Thee” is a direct poem to her lover showing how strong and measureless her love is by using non-objective things to compare her love. I will be analysing: the subject and tone of the poem, the form and structure, imagery, the rhyme and rhythm and other language patterns including alliteration, rhetorical devices and repetition. These will help me to explain the point of views.

 

The poem “How Do I Love Thee?” By Elizabeth Barrett Browning shows us unconditional love, which is measureless. The quote ‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height’ shows us how deep and meaningful his love is to her. The poem has a positive tone as it is talking about how deep her love is, it uses words like “love”, “purely”, “life”. These words give us the positive feeling. The poem “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti is a direct poem to her lover comparing her love to objects using similes e.g. “my heart is like a singing bird

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    Whose nest is in a watered shoot.” It then it orders her servants to do things for her e.g. “raise me a dais of silk and down;

Hang it with vair and purple dyes;” this is to prepare everything for her lover. This poem is a happy poem because it uses positive words like “heart” “gladder” “love”. These words show us that this poem has a positive mood. The poem called ‘A Woman To Her Lover’ by Christina Walsh is a poem controlled by the poet. She is standing up for her rights on how she should ...

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