Representations of Love in Poetry
Robert Browning was an English poet born in 1812 in Camberwell which
is now part of London. Today he is considered one of the most
prominent figures in poetry of the Victorian era. Remarkably Browning
had very little further education after the age of fourteen, as his
family was not able to pay for it, and was mainly self-taught. He was
most famous for his love poetry as was the trend in the Victorian
period, which he often wrote in the form of a dramatic monologue, a
literary composition where the speaker reveals his or her true
character. After producing several successful poems Browning married
the love his life, fellow English poet, Elizabeth Barrett Browning in
1846. He kept on writing until he died on 12th December 1889 and is
today considered one of the greatest poets to come from the Victorian
era.
Two of his poems that were famous because of the use of dramatic
monologue were the "My Last Duchess" and "Porphyria's Lover". They
were written around about the same time, from 1840-50, and share the
same common theme of obsessive love.
The dramatic monologue is used to great effect in both poems as
Browning gradually reveals the nature of the speaker and how love has
twisted their thoughts and decisions. It is used in this type of love
poetry because it sets a very sombre tone and helps the reader to get
some insight into the mind of someone obsessively in love as the
speaker tells you what he was thinking when they acted.
Both poems are written in blank verse which is the closest type of
poetry to the spoken word. "My Last Duchess" is written in iambic
pentameter which has five stressed beats per line and "Porphyria's
Lover" is written in iambic tetrameter which has four.
The poems are similar in the way that both men in both of the poems
get so jealous of the thought of their lover being with another man
that they cause the end of their lover's lives.
These poems are both very similar from the start. In the first stanzas, they both express feelings of overcoming obstacles. “I thank whatever gods may be. For my unconquerable soul.”
Both poems are set in the past, and both fathers are manual labourers, which the poets admired as a child. Both poems indicate intense change in their fathers lives, that affected the poet in a drastic way. Role reversal between father and son is evident, and a change of emotion is present. These are some of the re-occurring themes in both poems. Both poems in effect deal with the loss of a loved one; whether it be physically or mentally.
The poetry by these two poets creates several different images, both overall, each with a different goal, have achieved their purposes. Though from slightly different times, they can both be recognized and appreciated as poets who did not fear the outside, and were willing to put themselves out there to create both truth and beauty.
These two poems, For My Daughter, and Her Kind are greatly different but in a few ways the same. The few ways they are the same are very important and have great meaning behind it. The female in both of their poems, the use of nature, the sadness in the narrators voice and the darkness of the two poems both have in
Although both poems are set in the same environment, and that the visual structure of the poems are similar. Once you look deeper and analysis the poems it becomes clear that they have been written in very different styles, and very different but as powerful emotions running through them i.e. grief and resignment. One poet has a future to look forward to; the other knows that death is around the corner. One poet could not have for scene a death, the other is questioning weather the ‘black diamond dust’ was worth it on reflection.
When considering the structure of the poems, they are similar in that they are both written loosely in iambic pentameter. Also, they both have a notable structured rhyme scheme.
In conclusion, we can see that the two poems differ greatly in the feelings they project through mood and literacy devices. However, the poems do have one thing in common in that they both portray the same sentient of concern over plants that the authors clearly care a lot about.
Although the imagery in each poem is distinct, the similarity of message in both poems is evident. The poems are similar in that the narrator’s lives are empty and contain no passion for pursuing anything. The ideas reflected in these poems are seen even today, in such things as listless living and job-related apathy. Both poems suggest that a life where dreams of meaningless things are pursued will end without purpose or significance.
Attitudes Towards Love in Pre-1900 and 1990's Poetry “The Despairing Lover” written by William Walsh was written pre 1900 whilst the second poem “I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine” by Liz Lockhead was written in the 1990’s. These poems are almost a century apart. Attitude towards love changes over time and these poems represent this. I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine is about how people think about Valentine’s Day in the 1990’s, while The Despairing Lover is showing what people think and how important they see love in the 1990’s.
Both, the poem “Reluctance” by Robert Frost and “Time Does Not Bring Relief” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, revolved around the theme of lost love. Each poet used a similar array of poetic devices to express this theme. Visual imagery was one of the illustrative poetic devices used in the compositions. Another poetic device incorporated by both poets in order to convey the mood of the poems was personification. And by the same token, metaphors were also used to help express the gist of both poems. Ergo, similar poetic devices were used in both poems to communicate the theme of grieving the loss of a loved one.
Both poems where written in the Anglo-Saxton era in Old English and later translated into English. As well as both poems being written in the same time period, they are both elegiac poems, meaning they are poignant and mournful.
...ast each other well. Both poems use imagery, repetition, alliteration and rhyming and both have many biblical references and rhetorical questions. Although each poem is different in its structure, theme and the way it is written.
Both poems compare in similar poetic techniques such as sound-alike words in different stanzas. For example, the words “dark” and “work” in lines 21-22 and the words “warm” and “harm” in the last two lines are almost rhyming to catch the reader’s attention to that stanza. The words “dark and “work”
from the rest in that they describe a love that has ended or will end
“Love Poem” is a twenty-four-line poem in six stanzas. The generic tittle is an accurate description of the poem; it is a clue that this may not be a traditional example of love poetry. Both poems have the same rhyme scheme because the second and fourth line of every stanza rhyme. However, “Magic of Love’ speaks of a general love bringing happiness, joy and comfort. While “Love Poem” is much more personal. The speaker talks of memories with his clumsy love. Both poems have a different point of view when it comes to love. In Ferrier’s poem, she describes love as something perfect, that fixes everything. However, in Frederick’s poem, he doesn’t speak about what the love does right but rather he talks