Love can exist as affection, infatuation, obsession, pleasure and in many other ways, as love is abstract. Hence, there is no one single interpretation of love. Love is a theme that has been embedded into language and literature over the centuries, yet due to the ever changing perception of love people continue to search for a universal definition of love. Poems are able to showcase the inner feelings and desires of a poet as well as their own unique views on love. Nevertheless, through poems “La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats, “My Last Duchess” by Robert Browning, “Mother in a Refugee Camp” by Chinua Achebe, “The day is gone, and all its sweets are gone!” by John Keats, “Remember” by Christina Rossetti and “Piano” by D. H. Lawrence, this essay will explore how and why different poets present the theme of love in a variety of ways. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ is a romantic ballad written by English poet John Keats in 1819, when the artistic, literary and intellectual movement of romanticism was at its peak. Set in the medieval period, Keats aims to use this setting to juxtapose the different perspective people, originating from different times, had towards the theme of love. Through the relationship of the knight and the woman as well as the setting of ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’; Keats is able to reflect upon the faithful and truthful expression of love in the medieval times as well as the freedom of individual expression and imagination in the romantic period. Set
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Show MoreThis Elizabethan sonnet by George Gascoigne is a tortured self-confession of one “He” who “looked not upon her.” Gascoigne effectively illustrates the speaker’s paradoxical feelings for a woman through a series of literary devices such as extended metaphors, imagery, and alliteration, developing an easily identifiable conflict between the speaker’s desire for his lover and fear of being hurt again. The first stanza introduces us to the central paradox of the poem: why does the speaker “take no delight” in ranging his eyes “about the gleams” on his lover’s beautiful face? To answer this question, the speaker employs two extended metaphors that vividly illustrate this conundrum.
The “gleams” on her face entice him still, but the “blazing” fire of desire in her eyes terrifies him to the point of solitude - she is no longer safe to be around. This illustration of Gascoigne’s conflicting feelings is furthered by the fact that this poem is a Shakespearean sonnet. Shakespearean sonnets tend to be tragedies or romances that describe love, and this poem comments on the torment induced by love. The author’s choice for the form of the poem reinforces the meaning as a whole, that love itself is a
“Beauty is not in the face; beauty is a light in the heart.-Kahlil Gibran.” Inner beauty is more important than any other characteristics or features of you, for it is everlasting. This theme can be seen repeatedly throughout history, and specifically in Edmond Rostand’s“ Cyrano De Bergerac” and world-renowned William Shakespeare’s“ Sonnet 18.” Both the selections use different techniques to emphasize inner beauty. The book has a constant use of poetry to establish romanticism, and the poem uses metaphors to bring out rare and loving characteristics.
Romance comes in all different forms and sizes, and Calbert understands that along with these she apprends why people fall in and out of love. Falling in love has a sense of vulnerability that requires taking risks that people are “willing to fail, / why we will still let ourselves fall in love,” in order to sustain real love. Calbert ends her poem with listing the romances with her husband and vows, “knowing nothing other than [their] love” because that is all that matters to her
Love is something important. It’s the cause of life, death, and everything in between. It’s the reason that urges some people to get out of bed in the morning. Whether it’s head over heels, or just a short-lived crush, love is beautiful. However, a multitude of people corrupt the view of love with lust, a feeling based wholly on appearance.
Twenty-Sixth Day of the Second Moon, Eighteenth Year of Recent Awakenings In accordance with the will of Her Majesty, and in upholding the duties charged to me as a Senior Chronicler, I hereby submit an account of Romance with Poetry. The Mistress of Entertainments, mistress Josie is known for creating events that are both enjoyable and informative, in which is the reason she, at only Honored Guest gained the Royally Appointed position. So it was quite usual to see her holding an educational poetry bell, says her attendees on the twentieth day of the second moon.
The poem, in brief, is about the struggle the speaker faces as he prepares for war and attempts to explain to his lover how important honor is to him, surpassing even his feelings for her. It is written creatively, with a unique style. The poem is also personal and temporal, a trait of poems of this era. The poem is written in a conversational tone and is read as if by a male writer to a female lover. Lovelace weaves poetic techniques such as assonance, and metaphor together to create a good rhythm, and a theme based upon honor.
Love is unconditionally caring about someone else that you care more about yourself. Love may give us joy, and happiness, but it also brings the worse out in us. In Celeste Rita Baker’s short story Jumbie from Bordeaux, the author presents love and the price paid for love through the indirect characterization of Jumbie, his aunt, and parents. In the story the author uses courage to show the love that Jumbie had for his parents. For example, when Jumbie witnesses the harsh beating of his parents, he immediately jumps in to interfere, by attacking the master.
It has been said that “beauty is pain” and in the case of this poem, it is quite literal. “For That He Looked Not Upon Her” written by George Gascoigne, a sixteenth century poet, is a poem in which the speaker cannot look upon the one he loves so that he will not be trapped by her enhanced beauty and looks. In the form of an English sonnet, the speaker uses miserable diction and visual imagery to tell the readers and his love why he cannot look upon her face. Containing three quatrains and a rhyming couplet at the end, this poem displays a perfect English sonnet using iambic pentameter to make it sound serious and conversational. This is significant because most sonnets are about love and each quatrain, in English sonnets, further the speaker’s
Love and romance are a common genre found in poetry, where one is able to express their true emotions toward a particular person or thing. Love itself has come to represent both the emotional and personal connection between two lovers. Pablo Neruda, a renowned Chilean poet, explores the concept of love and separation in the form of the poem, “I can write the saddest verses.” In this poem, Neruda communicated his longing for his past love, whom he still loved at the time. While the words of the poem create an effect and feeling in the reader, which is related to the sad aspects of losing relationships, more can be uncovered about Neruda.
Love and relationship between man and woman has been the focal point of countless literary works, music pieces and other art objects since times immemorial. Depending on the personal experience and worldview of the author, the feeling of love has been interpreted in many individual ways. Consequently, to find two masterpieces which depict love similarly seems inconceivable. The texts under analysis – J.L. Borges’ “What can I hold you with?” and the song “Anything for Your Love” by E. Clapton – although written by two contemporary artists and elaborating the image of love, produce an absolutely different effect on the reader.
In comparison to the rigid patriarchal society portrayed in “My Last Duchess”, Keats’ “La Belle Dame sans Merci” illustrates how the freedom of individual expression in the romantic period affects people’s perspective on love. While the narrative persona in “My Last Duchess” demands his wife to devote her love to him, the protagonist of “La Belle Dame sans Merci” devotes to the woman he loves even though the love is unrequited. This is evident through the repetition of the line “On the cold hill side.” throughout the poem. The noun phrase “cold hill” suggests that the knight is lonely and depressed when he waits for the woman solely, however unlike the narrative persona of “My Last Duchess”, he would not demand the woman to love him instead he would wait patiently until the day his affection towards her is accepted.
In “Heloise & Abelard: Love Hurts”, Cristina Nehring points out that people today do not value romanticism as an admirable element of love, but become more self-centered and try to avoid hurts that love is attached to. People think romanticism is archaic. Therefore, Nehring illustrates that, “The story of Abelard and Heloise hardly resonates with the spirit of our age.” However, I disagree with Nehring’s point.
Love as a theme of the poems actually took a very important place in the collection. These love poems often contain different emotions. There are poems expressing the author fall in love with someone or poems expressing painful feelings about missing someone else. One interesting thing I noticed is that the
Throughout the text, the speaker uses a diverse array of literary techniques to demonstrate the multidimensional nature of their love towards a lover. First, passionate love is conveyed in the spatial metaphor of loving with “the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach.” Here, love is a substance that fills up and infatuates the speaker, creating a powerful drive that forces her to express it. This spatial love is overwhelming and grand, which establishes the passionate and fervent tone of the poem.