William Yeats sonnet, “Never give all the heart,” depicts a man in a frustrating relationship with a woman that’s taking his heart for granted only using his feeling as a game, thus resulting in heartbreak. First, Yeats warns that his feelings-- that is wholeheartedly invested in this woman-- isn’t worth having because she doesn’t think it’s worth giving a chance, “for love/ will hardly seem worth thinking of/ to passionate women if it seem/ certain”; second, he explains that his love won’t last for long,“for everything that's lovely is/ but a brief, dreamy, kind delight,” because the speaker doesn’t know she’s taking him for granted; third, it’s revealed that her only intentions was to string him along using his love as a game, “for all smooth
The Sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “Love is Not All” demonstrates an unpleasant feeling about the knowledge of love with the impression to consider love as an unimportant element that does not worth dying for; the poem is a personal message addressing the intensity, importance, and transitory nature of love. The poet’s impression reflects her general point of view about love as portrays in the title “Love is Not All.” However, the unfolding part of the poem reveals the sarcastic truth that love is important.
The last heroic couplet provides no hope and leaves only frustrating thoughts for the lover: "All wayes they try, successeless all they prove,/To cure the secret sore of lingering love". The speaker even argues that though Nature provides satisfaction for physical urges (e.g. hunger and thirst), Nature does not give Love the same satisfaction. The speaker describes a lover as a type of Sisyphus, enslaved in a vicious cycle of trying to accomplish the task (of fulfilling love's desires), only to have the problem roll back down and having to start over again.
When You are Old, by William Butler Yeats, represents and elderly woman reminiscing of her younger days. A past lover whispers to her as she looks through a photo album. Basically, Yeats is showing that as the woman gets older, she is alone, but she does not have to be lonely. She will always have her memories for companionship.
...ne perfect other half for everywhere, but that each of us will find numerous loves throughout our lives which will suit us throughout different phases and different events (Nadel 29). It is exactly this resistance to love and the need to become immune to its unyielding power makes him such a melancholically charismatic figure. His women were all loved, all worshipped, but in the end, this Byronic hero remains with a forever broken heart, to speak the words of his heart through the lyre of his music.
Yeats in Time: The Poet's Place in History All things can tempt me from this craft of verse: One time it was a woman's face, or worse-- The seeming needs of my fool-driven land; Now nothing but comes readier to the hand Than this accustomed toil. In these lines from "All Things can Tempt Me" (40, 1-5), Yeats defines the limitations of the poet concerning his role in present time. These "temptations" (his love for the woman, Maude Gonne, and his desire to advance the Irish Cultural Nationalist movement) provide Yeats with the foundation upon which he identifies his own limitations. In his love poetry, he not only expresses his love for Gonne, he uses his verse to influence her feelings, attempting to gain her love and understanding.
...e speaker admits she is worried and confused when she says, “The sonnet is the story of a woman’s struggle to make choices regarding love.” (14) Her mind is disturbed from the trials of love.
The sweetness of her touch brought his grief to a climax; he felt his whole being collapse in despair at the thought of having to lose her just when she was confessing more love for him than ever before. (Flaubert 275)
The love described in this sonnet is a dangerous, obsessive, and possessive love. Fenghua Ma states “the love that appears in Shakespeare’s early works takes on a bright and optimistic look” (Ma 920). Following Shakespeare’s early works, he transitioned to a period focused primarily on themes discussing tragic love. In a sense, the development of the theme in Sonnet 75 could be compared to Shakespeare 's career. The beginning of the sonnet discusses how essential the narrator 's lover is to his life. However, as the sonnet continues, the positive, optimistic view of love disappears, just as Shakespeare 's themes transitioned from optimistic views of love to tragic love throughout his career. On certain days, the narrator describes that he is over satisfied by looking at his lover excessively, but on other days, he is deprived of not having seen his lover at all. Shakespeare writes, “Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, / Or gluttoning on all, or all away” (Shakespeare l.13-14). The narrator is admitting to having an obsession and unhealthy relationship with his lover. He either sees too much or not enough of his
Love has been the cause of some of the greatest feats, discoveries, and battles in the history of man. It has driven men to insanity and despair, while it has lead others to happiness and bliss. This idea that love has a strong influence on man’s decisions can be seen in the poem, “Love is not all” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. The most prominent theme presented in “Love is not all” is that although love is not a necessity of life, it somehow manages to provoke such great desire and happiness that it becomes important.
At the start, the first stanza of the poem is full of flattery. This is the appeal to pathos. The speaker is using the mistress's emotions and vanity to gain her attention. By complimenting her on her beauty and the kind of love she deserves, he's getting her attention. In this first stanza, the speaker claims to agree with the mistress - he says he knows waiting for love provides the best relationships. It feels quasi-Rogerian, as the man is giving credit to the woman's claim, he's trying to see her point of view, he's seemingly compliant. He appears to know what she wants and how she should be loved. This is the appeal to ethos. The speaker seems to understand how relationships work, how much time they can take, and the effort that should be put forth. The woman, if only reading stanza one, would think her and the speaker are in total agreement.
In “Sonnet XVII,” the text begins by expressing the ways in which the narrator does not love, superficially. The narrator is captivated by his object of affection, and her inner beauty is of the upmost significance. The poem shows the narrator’s utter helplessness and vulnerability because it is characterized by raw emotions rather than logic. It then sculpts the image that the love created is so personal that the narrator is alone in his enchantment. Therefore, he is ultimately isolated because no one can fathom the love he is encountering. The narrator unveils his private thoughts, leaving him exposed and susceptible to ridicule and speculation. However, as the sonnet advances toward an end, it displays the true heartfelt description of love and finally shows how two people unite as one in an overwhelming intimacy.
Yeats' poetry is very dramatic because he usually creates dramatic contrasts within his poems and because his tone changes regularly. When he wasn't in conflict with the world around him he was in conflict with himself. He was never satisfied with modern Ireland, even when he was younger. As he grew older, his dissatisfaction became even greater.
Love is the ubiquitous force that drives all people in life. If people did not want, give, or receive love, they would never experience life because it is the force that completes a person. People rely on this seemingly absent force although it is ever-present. Elizabeth Barrett Browning is an influential poet who describes the necessity of love in her poems from her book Sonnets from the Portuguese. She writes about love based on her relationship with her husband. Her life is dependent on him, and she expresses this same reliance of love in her poetry. She uses literary devices to strengthen her argument for the necessity of love. The necessity of love is a major theme in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnet 14,” “Sonnet 43,” and “Sonnet 29.”
...all & Maynard 1676). He is harsh to his love, who he calls a mistress. However, at the end of the sonnet, he is admires and accepts her, ‘and yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she belied with false compare’ (Lawall & Maynard 1676). Petrarch sonnet if more complex, it is fond and even slightly defiant, ‘you say she is not so today? Well, though the bow’s unbent, the wound bleeds on’ (Lawall & Maynard 1676). He accepts that she is not what she used to be but he still loves her.
It seems that over the years, true love is expressed less and less. We are bombarded with holiday cards filled with someone else’s words, and are practically forced to send our love in an email. How often do we actually sit down and write out our feelings to the one we love? “To My Dear and Loving Husband,” however, is the quintessential love letter. Anne Bradstreet shares her feelings to her husband in such a loving way that could make anyone’s heart melt. According to BellaOnline, Bradstreet was, “married to governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony and had eight children.” Even though her marriage might have become filled with routines and lost a little passion, the poet never loses the love for her husband. She states that the power of her “…love is such that rivers cannot quench”(Bradstreet, 7). Bradstreet expresses her emotions to be so strong that not even a roaring river can possibly satisfy them. She prizes her husband’s “…love more than whole mines of gold/ Or all the riches that the East doth hold,” (Bradstreet, 5-6) meaning she values his affection more than any amount of money she could obtain. The sonnet goes on to prove how everlasting true love can be when Bradstreet states, “…when we live no more, we may live ever”(12). She wishes to...