In Sappho's poems, she does not take on a typical point of view of love as she describes the allure and agony through her own experience. This alternative approach to love is shown in Sappho's poems 16 as she makes a connection between her own life and the emotions behind the Trojan war. Also, in 31 she describes a physical pain that opens up her life to the audience through her experience with jealousy. Another link between author and audience is seen in poem 94 as Sappho tells a story of her heartbreak. Then in Sappho's fragments 48 and 51, there are short personal phrases, allowing the readers to fill in the rest with their thoughts. It is with Sappho's first-person perspective that she creates an intimate connection with the audience …show more content…
During her time, Sappho was unique because her stories chose to focus on love while most other stories focused on wars. An example of this is shown as Sappho starts poem 16 with an optimistic approach to love as she argues that "some men say an army of horses…is the most beautiful thing on the black earth. But I say it is what you love". This personal approach on love's allure is much more relatable for an audience than war, as most people will experience these powerful emotions in their lifetime but not all will experience war directly. Sappho's even compares her own life experiences with that of Helen, who left her entire family for Paris of Troy. She states that the story "reminded me now of Anaktoria" but most importantly that she "would rather see her lovely step and the motion of light on her face than chariots of Lydians". Sappho says much more with this line than just of love's power, she is also alluding to the loss of someone she loved. This unusual first-person incorporation to a well-known part of history gives the audience an idea of just how painful love can be, as the idea of getting it back overcomes the excitement of war for …show more content…
That being said, it is clear that throughout her life she experiences a divide in love. In fragment 48 Sappho describes the pain of looking for love, and the relief once it is found. Sappho shows her infatuation with an unknown person saying, "you came and I was crazy for you". The feeling of new love is something that any audience can connect to and it is what keeps Sappho going through her complex love cycle. She even goes as far as to say that "you cooled my mind that burned with longing". A new pain is seen in love here, the pain of wanting to be loved as she longed for that feeling again. This divide of the relief and anguish of love is a constant problem for Sappho, but it makes her poetry more realistic for the audience. This idea is further pursued in fragment 51 as she illustrates the divide of beauty and rage within love that keep her mind uncertain. This is seen as Sappho brings up her "two states of mind". Although this is only a phrase and little is known about the context, it is clear that Sappho struggles with the allure and agony of love. She is constantly being ripped away and then pulled back into affection. Combining these high emotions with the intimate experience of a first-person
“Opinions on the occasions of Sappho’s poetry lie on a spectrum between two extremes. On one hand she was depicted as a kindly schoolmistress who educated young girls for marriage; on the other she was called the worst kind of sexual profligate.”
Love in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet "Romeo and Juliet" is a love tragedy based on different kinds of loves. Romeo and Juliet become married in a forbidden relationship over the high tension brawl between their rival families which Shakespeare clearly shows in the play. Despite the family brawls, the pair decides to let their "perfect" love defeat all. Peoples ideas have changed in the space of 400 years, for example back then some loves featured in this play would produce different reactions to the audience, than today. Shakespeare opens the play with the chorus who speaks a sonnet, where love imagery is found; "Two Star-crossed lovers" =
In the Symposium, a most interesting view on love and soul mates are provided by one of the characters, Aristophanes. In the speech of Aristophanes, he says that there is basically a type of love that connects people. Aristophanes begins his description of love by telling the tale of how love began. He presents the tale of three sexes: male, female, and a combination of both. These three distinct sexes represented one’s soul. These souls split in half, creating a mirror image of each one of them. Aristophanes describes love as the search for the other half of your soul in this quote: “When a man’s natural form was split in two, each half went round looking for its other half. They put their arms around one another, and embraced each other, in their desire to grow together again. Aristophanes theme is the power of Eros and how not to abuse it.
The William Shakespeare tragedy Othello features various types of love, but none compare to the love we find between the protagonist and his wife. In this essay let us examine “love” as found in the play.
The elaborate soliloquy spoken by Othello as he approaches his sleeping wife (V.ii.1-22) contains some splendid images, such as “chaste stars,” “monumental alabaster,” “flaming minister,” and “Promethean heat,” but its key words are simple and used repeatedly: cause, soul, blood, die, light, love, and weep. In his last sustained speech (V.ii.338-56), the images are fewer and approached through the simplest words (“Speak of me as I am”) and most blatant antitheses (“loved not wisely, but too well”). (xiv)
In Bridges’ poem, he discusses both love, and its interactions with humanity, from the perspective of a person deep in introspective contemplation. For example, Bridges writes, “What is thy thought? I dream thou knowest it is nought” (19-20). The fact his poem is written as a monologue allows Bridges to ask rhetorical questions to Eros, and then answer them, in order to put further emphasis on the general message of the poem. On the other hand, Stevenson comments on love by directly addressing its personified form. In the quotation, “‘Madam’, cries Eros, ‘Know the brute you see is what long overuse has made of me’” (9-12), Stevenson depicts Eros stating how offenses against love have tarnished its beauty. This dialogue format allows Eros to stand trial and give a formal statement against the accusations made by Stevenson in the first stanza. Stevenson addresses Eros in the quotation, “‘Can this be you, with boxer lips and patchy wings askew?’” (6-8). Here, Stevenson accuses personified form of love of being a broken image of its former self. While Bridges and Stevenson differ in the way they converse with Eros, the two poems also diverge in the tone with which the poets address the
Love, in classical Greek literature, is commonly considered as a prominent theme. Love, in present days, always appears in the categories of books, movies or music, etc. Interpreted differently by different people, Love turns into a multi-faceted being.
Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 34, No. 2, Elizabethan and Jacobean Drama (Spring, 1994), pp. 341-356 Published by: Rice University http://www.jstor.org/stable/450905
The lyric poems in the ancient times are presented in the first person point of view. Since lyric poetry expresses the personal and emotional feelings of a speaker, Sappho’s poems, Abu Nawar’s verses, Egyptian poems, and Neo-Christian Aztec poems explore the emotions of the speakers as they describe their culture, lifestyle, and tradition. These verses depict the passion, love, and perspectives of the ancient civilizations
I have always thought that there was only one type of love, which was that feeling of overwhelming liking to someone else. I am aware that Lust does exist and that it is separate from Love, being that the desire for someone's body rather their mind. In Plato's Symposium, Plato speaks of many different types of love, loves that can be taken as lust as well. He writes about seven different points of view on love coming from the speakers that attend the symposium in honor of Agathon. Although all these men bring up excellent points on their definitions on love, it is a woman that makes the best definition be known. I will concentrate on the difference between the theory of Common and Heavenly love brought up by Pausanias and the important role that Diotima plays in the symposium.
the play is not solely about love but also a lot of hatred is involved
Physical separation is a powerful obstacle that is sometimes faced by those bound to each other in love. It brings about intense emotional pain and can hinder any relationship with which true love is at its core. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 56 involved two lovers that experienced physical separation as a stumbling block in their kinship. The “sad interim” with which the lovers found themselves suffering caused the intensity of their love to vanish. With their love fading quickly, the two desired for “sweet love” to “renew thy force.” They wanted their love for each other to be “blunter be than appetite, / Which but today by feeding is allayed, / Tomorrow sharpened in his former might.” They wished for a love like hunger, constantly returning and needing to be quenched. However, due to their separation, the people’s “spirit of love” had become “a perpetual dullness.” The “hungry eyes” of their love would “wink with fullness” and had lost its potency and strength. In order to repair the love that had waned, the lovers longed to “Come daily to the banks” of the ocean so that the “Return of love” could come to their relationship, and they desired “this sad interim” to be “winter, which being full of care / Makes summer’s welcome thrice more wish’d.” Sonnet 56 was a sad story in which separation caused two people’s love to become dull and boring. The obstacle of separation was also evident in the relationship between Hero and Claudio found in the play, Much Ado About Nothing. At the beginning of the play, Don Pedro and some of his men returned to Messina after battling in war. One of the men that Don Pedro brought with him was young Claudio. Claudio was highly respected in the eyes of Don Pedro and had exceptional war performan...
The apostle John declared: “God is love.” In the Koine Greek, Agape love is that not only that love is from God, but that it is of God. God Himself loves. Love is one of the moral attributes of God Agape love is self-sacrificing. The LORD Almighty loved the world so much that He sent His only son, to death; death on a cross. .
Sweetbitter Love: Poems of Sappho: A New Translation. Trans. Willis Barnstone. Boston: Shambhala Press, 2006.
From the works of William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser it is clear that some similarities are apparent, however the two poets encompass different writing styles, as well as different topics that relate to each other in their own unique ways. In Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” and Spenser’s “Sonnet 75”, both poets speak of love in terms of feelings and actions by using different expressive views, allowing the similar topics to contain clear distinctions. Although Edmund Spenser’s “Sonnet 75” and William Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 18” relate in the sense that love is genuine and everlasting, Spenser suggests love more optimistically, whereas Shakespeare focuses on expressing the beauty and stability of love.