Secondly, “An Evil Spirit” is a popular sonnet of Michael Drayton about the power of beauty. Beauty is so powerful that it haunts Drayton and the reader at the same time. It drives him to despair; it tempts him to drown himself in his own tears. Moreover it hastes him to a sudden death. The theme of that sonnet is power of beauty and the torture experienced by a loyal platonic lover because of that beauty. Love and beauty is so powerful that they torture him in most extremity. “And tortures me in most extremity” he says. Though the speaker loves the woman a lot, he cannot receive any response from her and inaccessibility of her beauty tortures him. Aim of Drayton is to abandon that love and pain -and yet he can’t- while the purpose of the poem is to express grief and sorrow experienced by him and to arouse emotion which is called “love”. Though that sonnet was written five centuries ago, it preserves its validity by making the reader understand the evil side of love. Writing in an informal manner, Drayton aims to invite the reader into sharing his love, pain and sorrow. His using the exclamation “alas” is an obvious evidence of his informal relationship between him and the reader. In addition to this, the poem has a melancholic, dramatic tone. Drayton creates that melancholy through his sharp delineations of love and beauty. “An evil spirit your beauty haunts me still”. He sees beauty as an evil spirit and moreover the word “evil” makes the tone much more pessimistic because of its denotation. Melancholic tone of the poem creates a depressive mood and a gloomy atmosphere. There are several vital words that create a depressive mood. For instance, “haunts”, “ill”, “greater torments”, “tortures”, “despairs”, “a sudden death”, “to drown myself in tears”, “give up my breath”, “provoked to every evil”, “wicked” and “devil” are such words that influence readers by creating a depressive mood and a gloomy atmosphere.
Thirdly, when the poem “An Evil Spirit” is analyzed in terms of form and structure, it can be obviously identified that its structure is “sonnet”. “An Evil Spirit” is an English sonnet which is very popular in terms of structure as it has been used for centuries. In that structure the poem is divided into three quatrains (of four lines) and a couplet (of two lines). “An Evil Spirit” is a sonnet of fourteen lines and the rhyme scheme is “a-b-a-b/c-d-c-d/e-f-e-f/g-g”. The rhymes of the poem are “…still-…ill, …possessed- …rest/ …wake-…take, …try- …extremity/… despairs-…tears, …death-…breath/…evil-….devil”. All those rhymes give a rhythm to the poem and that rhythm emphasizes a great sorrow and pain of the omniscient speaker. Another important point is that there are some words with emphatic stress beside the syllable stress. For instance, the word “evil” has an emphatic stress as it is an essential word in the emphasis of the context. He is deeply in love with a woman and his love, her beauty become a spirit in him; it becomes a part of him. However that part of his spirit is “evil” as that love and beauty hurt him. For this reason the word “evil” must be emphasized. Punctuation in the poem is another vital aspect that influences the rhythm of the poem. There is an interesting point that three quatrains are written as a single sentence while the couplet is another sentence on its own. Each quatrain is divided by semicolons whereas each line is divided by commas.
An evil spirit your beauty haunts me still,
……………………………………………possessed,
………………………………………………………..ill,
……………………………………………………rest;
It shows us that there is unity in those three quatrains in terms of meaning while the couplet, the end part reflects another meaning. Three quatrains emphasize the pain of love and beauty, how he wants to get rid of that love but how he is tightly binded to love and beauty. Althrough those three quatrains Drayton explains pain, sorrow and desire for getting rid of that pain while in the couplet he reflects his loyalty to his love and her beauty despite all the pain he endures.
In addition to all these issues, there is a wide range of poetic devices, language techniques in that poem. First of all, there is enjambment in the poem. First three quatrains are written in the form of a single sentence, one line doesn’t reflect a full sentence and also the couplet reflects a single sentence. Two lines don’t reflect two separate sentences. The lines do not convey meanings to the reader on their own, they must be united. In addition to these, Drayton uses several various kinds of language techniques to make the exposition much more effective. Figurative language, especially the metaphor, personification, parallelism in terms of meaning, oxymoron and the hyperbole are used to influence reader. In the lines “An evil spirit your beauty haunts me still” and “Thus am I still provoked to every evil”, the word “evil” is used as a metaphor. The beauty of the woman is seen like an evil as it is impossible for the lover to reach her; she is the inaccessible one so that he has to avoid her. He tries to avoid himself from her love and to prevent himself from torturing himself by dispraising her beauty with the word “evil”. Also the word “spirit” is another metaphoric usage. As Anne’s beauty becomes a part of his soul, he accepts it as a spirit. On the other hand, that spiritualism emphasizes the unavailability of her and impossibility of receiving a response from her. He continues emphasizing that impossibility in love by using personifications. “beauty” is personified in the first line as it “haunts” him still. Also in the line “In me it speaks, whether I sleep or wake” “it” is personified by speaking ability. Moreover the most essential point is that; althrough the poem only her “beauty” and “an evil spirit” are personified which shows us that the poet tries to take the attention of reader by personifying “beauty” and “evil spirit” because they symbolizes the same thing “the pain and sorrow of the platonic love and impossibility of getting rid of that love”. Another effective point in the poem is that there is parallelism in terms of meaning which emphasizes the power of love that is capable of torturing the lover even if hasting the lover to death, to commit a suicide. “With great torments then it me doth take/and tortures me in most extremity” both lines reflect the torturing aspect of love by using the parallel words “torture-torment”, “great-extremity”, they carry parallel meanings. Also the poet reflects the opposite sides of love by using oxymoron in the last line “By this good wicked spirit, sweet angel-devil”. Love is comforting with the good spirit it contains and also evil at the same time. Drayton wants to emphasize that love contains both virtuous and wicked sentiments simultaneously and that makes love special. Love means “a parched body”, first it warms then it burns. Beside these, Drayton uses hyperbole in two lines; “And hastes me unto a sudden death” and “Now tempting me to drown myself in tears”. He exaggerates the damaging effects of love on him. Love and beauty are identified as destructive powers associated by “sudden death” and “drowning in his tears” which are nearly impossible.
Michael Drayton makes much of lexical choice so as to give the real sentiment of power of beauty and love by using connotations, archaism, solemnity, modifiers, abstract and concrete nouns. “An evil spirit” is a connotation of which meaning differs from person to person; it may mean love for one and pain for the other. Moreover Drayton uses archaism such as “unto, ceaseth, doth”. In addition to these some abstract and concrete nouns are used so as to show that love is both concrete and abstract as it can be both accessible and inaccessible. In general Drayton uses abstract nouns in his sonnet in order to tempt the feelings and arouse emotions of the reader. For instance, “spirit” and “devil” are abstract nouns that delineate the painful aspect of love and the destructiveness of beauty. Also modifiers are used in that sonnet. For instance, in “one poor minute’s rest” “one poor minute” is a pre-modifier of “rest”. When the poem is analyzed grammatically it can be obviously identified that all the lines start with conjunctions, and propositions except for the first line and it is determiner. They provide continuity and enjambment in the poem. For example, “An…/wherewith…/which…/nor…” are used. Also there is an exclamation expression “alas” which is used to take attention of the reader. Beside these, inverted sentence is used to reflect the psychological conditions of a lover. His world becomes upside down as he cannot reach his love and that lover psychology is reflected into the poem so as to make the exposition much more effective.
All in all, in “An Evil Spirit” Michael Drayton emphasizes his own love, sorrow and the destructively powerful beauty of a woman; Anne. That poem arouses emotions by highly effective language. Drayton does a very successful lexical choice for versifying his own sorrow. Readers not only read the sonnet but also feel, perceive the sonnet. It is impossible to discard the pain in the poem, it makes the reader cry and it tempts reader to drown himself/herself in tears and he makes everyone feel like giving up breath in sighing. He reflects his feeling through various kinds of poetic devices, he doesn’t say “she” for the spirit but he says “in me “it” speaks”, he never uses the word “love” although he experiences a great love-pain and by these ways “an evil spirit” highly affects the reader. Everyone reads between the lines and investigates the “evil spirit” torturing themselves who realizes that they are carrying a torch for something like Drayton’s love to Anne. For these reasons “An evil spirit” is one of the most outstanding and popular poems of Michael Drayton. To sum up, words are inadequate for explaining Drayton’s pain but may be those lines which are written by his friend Shakespeare clarifies the pain and meaning of love for Drayton;
“Two loves I have, of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman, colour’d ill.”
