Pre-1914 Poems.

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Hayley Shaw

Pre-1914 Poems Essay

In the six pre-1914 poems I have been studying, I can see that they all have the same theme of love, but it is displayed in different ways. For example, In the poem Remember, and In the Mile End Road, the themes are love, death, and grief, however one is about a woman who is terminally ill and is going to die, and she is pleading with her husband not to grieve when she dies, whereas In the Mile End Road it is about a person who is grieving for a loss of a loved one. Also the two poems, His coy mistress and The Sun rising are both about sexual love yet shown in two completely different lights. His coy mistress is about seduction, adultery and flattery, but the Rising sun shows this theme in a much more pleasant way where a couple are so much in love they don’t want to leave the bedroom. The Sick Rose and Sonnet 138 both have themes of love and ambiguity, however The sick rose shows this in a far more sinister way I will continue to explore these ideas in greater detail.

The Sun rising is about a couple who are in a sexual relationship, and believe their love is the most important thing in the world. This becomes apparent as the poet says,

‘This bed thy centre is, these walls thy sphere’

This suggests that the couple love each other so much, they are unconnected from the outside world, and nothing else matters apart from them. It also gives us the idea that the world revolves around them, the word ‘sphere’ reminds us of the planet earth and how everything orbits the sun, and the sun is central to everything we know. This also links in with the idea that the man feels their love is even more important than the sun. We know this because the man apostrophises the sun when he is bothered by it.

        ‘Busy old fool, unruly sun,

Why dost thou thus, through windows and through curtains call on us?’

This shows the man takes on a defiant tone, addressing the sun as if he has been disturbed by it, also the man appears to by shocked how something he has no control over dare disturb him and his wife, it seems as though the man thinks him and his wife are the only beings on earth, and nothing else matters, although the sun rises everyday.

        This poem is a celebration of sexual love.

        ‘Thou, Sun, art half happy as we’

Again, the reference to the sun suggests, the man and woman feel central to everything, therefore being more important than everyone because their love is so strong. The fact that the man compares themselves to such a great thing as the sun, shows he is very confident in this relationship, and their love blocks out the rest of the world.

        However, In the poem To his coy mistress, the theme of sexual love is show in a much more negative way. In this poem, all the way through there is a feeling of deceitfulness. For example, the title ‘To his coy mistress’ shows that man and woman aren’t married and this relationship would be adulterous if they slept together, therefore the relationship shouldn’t really be happening to start with and the man should not be trying to be unfaithful to his wife.

        In this poem, the man is trying to persuade his mistress to sleep with him by flattery.

        ‘For,Lady, you deserve this state; Nor would I love at lower rate’

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Here he is saying that he would never settle for less, and she is the best. The fact that he is trying to entice her into bed using flattery suggests he is desperate, and he will go to any measures. It also shows us that if he has to plead and use such flattery maybe he already knows she doesn’t want to sleep with him. If this is the case, and if he really did love her he wouldn’t try to pressure her into doing anything she didn’t want to.

        He says he loves her in this poem, however he ...

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