Andrew Marvell's The Definition of Love is the epitome of irony. Marvell takes the feelings often associated with love and drowns them in a cool, lucid, dispassionate tone that borders on self-mocking. Marvell writes about unrequited passions, insisting that Fate itself acts against true love. Mentioned first in the third stanza, Marvell introduces the idea of Fate as the reason for his rough history with love:
"And yet I quickly might arrive
Where my extended soul is fixed
But Fate does iron wedges drive,
And always crowds itself betwixt" (lines 9-12)
Taking this into consideration it is not surprising why the hatred that Marvell has for Fate flows into the next two stanzas. In the third stanza, Marvell explains how Fate becomes jealous when she sees two lovers engulfed in one another, and dissolves their relationship in a "tyrannic power depose" (line 16). He goes on to explain the idealistic nature of love:
"As lines (so loves) oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet:
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, cannot meet" (lines 25-28)
Marvell believes love is something that people think they can possess but it's really an unattainable goal. Instead of Fate matching people up, Marvell believes that fate only tears people apart.
Marvell ends the poem with a small shred of hope:
"Therefore the love which us doth bind.
But Fate so enviously debars,
Is the conjunction of the mind,
And opposition of the stars" (lines 29 - 32)
Though this sounds as if it would be in a typical love poem, the reader must look closely at the final two lines.
“It lies not in our power to love, or hate, for will in us is over-rul'd by fate.” In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, it is clear that the leading theme is fate, as it is mentioned several times. Shakespeare allows the audience to see everything that happens “behind closed doors.” While some characters’ actions did affect the outcome of the play, fate is the ruling force.
This shows that you are constantly affected by the ones you love and have loved. This poem focuses on the theme of love and its influence on your life and body,
The speaker is supposed to be writing a love poem to his wife, but the unmistakable criticism he places on her makes one wonder if this is really love he speaks of. It may not be a "traditional" love story, but he does not need to degrade his wife in this manner. Reading through this poem the first time made us feel defensive and almost angry at the speaker for criticizing his wife so badly. Although it is flattering to be the subject of a poem, we do not think many women would like to be written about in this way.
Lois Lowry uses Verbal Irony which is, stating something that is the opposite of what is suppose to or expected to be stated, to state how many things that The Community has lost through “Sameness”. Jonas asked his mom if she loved him and her response is very surprising. “‘Love is a meaningless term, almost obsolete’ Jonas’s mother said”(127). Through just what Jonas’s mother has said you can tell that they are completely oblivious to any emotion or feelings at all. Love is infact a very strong word that should not just be thrown around and if they had feelings then they would understand that and she would love Jonas with a passion. Lois Lowry also uses
This line was very unexpected and this line makes the poem what it is. The poem transition from a love poem to a darker more painful story. The tone of the poem also shifts to a more eerie tone. Another thing about the third stanza is that at this moment in the poem, I can connect the poem to the Greek mythological story of Persephone and Hades. The allusion sets up the rest of the poem and gives the poem a lot more meaning.
I personally loved everything that this poem stood for. I liked that this poem had two average people at its center. They were not young or insanely beautiful, but they still showed how amazing love can be and how love goes beyond everything. When it comes down to it love has no gender, age, race, or time it is just about humans loving other humans. In this week’s chapter it is discussed how romance itself has a huge cultural impact and this poem definitely connects with this idea. This poem also follows the cliche of love. The way that love is blinding and will conquer all is presented in a real and believable way, but then it can also be considered unrelatable for some because how romance is set up to be and how high the standards are for true love. Furthermore, I like the idea of love going beyond age, beauty, and time but realistically for most people they will never experience a love so intense. People can though understand how what is portrayed in the media is not how everyone experiences love and that people who differ from this unrealistic standard can still be in love in their own intense beautiful way.
Some may say love is just an emotion while others may say it is a living and breathing creature. Songs and poems have been written about love for hundreds and thousands of years. Love has been around since the beginning of time, whether someone believes in the Big Bang or Adam and Eve. Without love, there wouldn’t be a world like it is known today. But with love, comes pain with it. Both William Shakespeare and Max Martin know and knew this. Both ingenious poets wrote love songs of pain and suffering as well as blossoming, newfound love. The eccentric ideal is both writers were born centuries apart. How could both know that love and pain work hand in hand when they were born 407 years apart? Love must never change then. Love survives and stays its original self through the hundreds and thousands of years it has been thriving. Though centuries apart, William Shakespeare and Max Martin share the same view on love whether i...
In romantic words, the poet expresses how much she does think of love. She state it clear that she will not trade love for peace in times of anguish.
writing the poem, to woo his love. Or maybe is the line was not meant
form of the poem to convey a message to the reader occurs on line four as she
The poem's diction immerses the reader into the speaker's fantasy-like realm of love shared with his bride. He begins the poem with the first two lines, "It was many and many a year ago, / In a kingdom by the sea," much like the "once upon a time, in a faraway land" of fairytales. The couple lived with no other thought than to love one another and "loved with a love that was more than love" (9).
However as shown in the final stanza this poem is truly about the lost of someone dear to her and
Love is ironic. It can take you anywhere in the world unexpectedly, and turn you into a person that you never were. However, love is also two-faced, having both a negative and positive view. It is what drives you to the point where you do not know who you are anymore. In Shakespeare's story, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare perceives love with the personalities and actions of the characters, Romeo and Juliet. Both Romeo and Juliet are characterized as immature and irrational due to their "love." In addition, both characters fail to realize the reality of life and go towards the path of adolescence. Even though Romeo and Juliet are doomed at the end of the journey of "love," their demise was caused by their rash and silly decisions because their belief of everlasting love blinds them from reality and shapes their lives into an unstoppable time bomb.
In the last lines of the poem the woman attempts to reassure the child that she loved it with all her heart.
Within this dark and dreary world where we so happen to find things that stand in our way and throw a wrench into all of the plans that we have made to appease ourselves. These simple, seemingly ordinary things can turn a whole world into nothing but rubble. The worst thing about these irritating interlopers is the very fact that almost every time, without fail, they turn out to have some sinister and humorous irony about themselves. That irony can sometimes make life far too hard for some people to bear. But some people don’t have to for long. Many authors have written tremendous novels based on dark irony and those malicious things in this world. So very many of them have succeeded in portraying this irony perfectly, and that tells you how very horrible that irony truly is. The famous short story author, Saki, told a very grim and ominous story called, The Interlopers. In this gloomy story of his, he uses irony to the very greatest of its potential and in the very last moments, he used dark imagery to show two men seemingly being served justice, but one can be lead to think otherwise.