The Essence of a Love Poem
What is a love poem? Many believe that a love poem is supposed to be sweet and romantic. That is the basic tone of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “How Do I Love Thee?” However, William Shakespeare’s “My mistress‘ eyes are nothing like the sun” takes a much different approach to the typical love poem. Both poems are noticeably love poems, but they respond to the ideal in different ways. Browning describes her love as enormous and wonderful, but it is somewhat too ideal, to the point of being unrealistic. However, Shakespeare’s description of his lover is not flattering, and occasionally insulting, yet much more realistic and therefore more ideal. The subjects and themes of the poems are very similar; however, the tone, voice and settings are quite opposite.
Browning’s description of the love she feels is portrayed as amazing, almost to the point of being unrealistic. She uses metaphors to show that her love is like a bird soaring into the heavens, powerful and unstoppable. However, it is also depicted as soft and gentle, which is shown by her reference to “candlelight”(line 6). When children love, they love with every part of themselves because they don’t understand what heartache feels like.
This pure and unquestionable form of love is what Browning’s referring to when she claims to love “with my childhood’s faith”(line 10). She also believes that her love cannot be stopped, even by death; which is evident in line 14 when she states “I shall but love thee better after death.” The tone of the poem is romantic, which is typical of a traditional love poem. However, her description of the love she feels is so articulate and sincere that the reader can almost feel her emotions. Th...
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... when one loves someone from afar, his or her impression of that person is usually idealistic. Therefore, he wouldn’t refer to her in such a cynical form. He would probably believe that she is the most beautiful and charming woman he’s ever known. It is this realistic aspect that makes Shakespeare’s poem a much better love poem than that of Browning’s.
Although both are considered to be love poems, Shakespeare and Browning take two very different approaches to the idea of love. Browning’s poem depicts a more ideal love, the kind that most people strive for; however, Shakespeare’s poem describes a more realistic type of love, the kind that most people can achieve. Personally, I would prefer the love portrayed in Shakespeare’s sonnet because that is the kind of love that lasts. The type of love illustrated in Browning’s poem is often fleeting and unattainable.
Most people have fallen in love at least once in their lives. I too fall in this category. Just like any Disney movie that you watch, people fall in love with each other, and they get married and live happily ever after right? Wrong! In real life, there are some strange things that can happen, including death, divorce, or other weird things that you never see in Disney movies. Robert Browning’s literary works are great examples of “Non-Fairytale Endings.” Not only does Browning have endings in his stories that aren’t the norm in children movies, but he also has some twisted and interesting things happen in the story of lovers. In Robert Browning’s works, Porphyria’s Lover, and My Last Duchess, the speakers can be both compared and contrasted.
The first pages of this work quickly establishes this extremely effective stylistic imagery and quickly captures the readers attention, making it a chore to be diverted from reading this famous work. She begins with the metaphor, which likens writing this novel to better herself "as when you paint your portrait for a friend," (Longman p. 1863; l. 5) and it continues to connect the past and present for that friend. The imagery is so real that the reader quickly becomes completely enthralled within the world Browning is describing. Just twelve lines into the work, she masterfully creates a tender and calming scene of an infant smiling in its sleep, due to its understanding of the infinite nature of life. Then broadening the view of the scene to include the watchful mother outside the nursery, calming the household to insure the continued peaceful rest of the infan...
The word choice in Sonnet 43 and Sonnet 116 can be compared as well as contrasted, based on the way the words are used, and also the types of words the authors both Browning, as well as Shakespeare have chosen. In Sonnet 43, Browning uses words similar to the words Shakespeare chose. For example in line two "I love Thee to the depth and breadth and height" the words "Thee" and "breadth" are not common words used in everyday English. "Thee" used here seems to mean 'you', and "breadth" to mean 'width'. This would make the line translate to "I love you to the depth and width and height." The words Browning chooses to use help express exactly how deep and long the love is. In sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare the word choice, as in Browning's Sonnet 43, also uses words that are not common to everyday conversations in the English language. For example Shakespeare uses "impediments" and "tempests" in place of the common words "obstructions" and "disturbances" or "flaws" his choice or words for his sonnet help to show the serious tone, and show that his lesson on love is important.
When he writes "And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare as any she, belied with false compare." (lines 13-14) in the final couplet, one responds with an enlightened appreciation, making them understand Shakespeare's message that true love consists of something deeper than physical beauty. Shakespeare expresses his ideas in a wonderful fashion. Not only does he express himself through direct interpretation of his sonnet, but also through the levels at which he styled and produced it. One cannot help but appreciate his message of true love over lust, along with his creative criticism of Petrarchan sonnets.
Moreover, this scenario also reappears at the end of the sonnet, where Browning says, ". . . if God choose, / I shall but love thee better after death" (13-14). In this comparison, Browning 's love is stretched past death to the afterlife, where death becomes a physical and visual reference point, however, the afterlife is not something the reader can visualize. Therefore, the relationship between Browning 's love and the afterlife could not be more ungraspable for the reader, as the reader has no insight into what Browning 's particular afterlife looks like, with respect to her sonnet. Furthermore, Browning 's ending verse, and the aforementioned two verses, all have a common idea: Browning 's comparisons all revolve around contradictions. The sonnet is essentially about the great, vast love Browning feels for her husband, however, that great, vast love is restricted by each comparison, as each comparison has an unwavering finality. For example, in the first verse mentioned, Browning 's love is being compared to a measureable quantity, "the depth and breadth and height[,]" (2) the volume, of her soul. In this case, how much her soul can contain is limited by the measureable quantity of volume. In addition, the second verse, at lines 5
Browning's amazing command of words and their effects makes this poem infinitely more pleasurable to the reader. Through simple, brief imagery, he is able to depict the lovers' passion, the speaker's impatience in reaching his love, and the stealth and secrecy of their meeting. He accomplishes this feat within twelve lines of specific rhyme scheme and beautiful language, never forsaking aesthetic quality for his higher purposes.
Though ballads and Sonnets are poems that can depict a picture of someone’s beloved, they can have many differences. For instance, a Ballad is a story in short stanzas such as a song would have, where as a sonnet typical, has a traditional structure of 14 lines employing several rhyme schemes and adheres to a tight thematic organization. Both Robert Burn’s ballad “The Red, Red, Rose, and William Shakespeare’s “of the Sonnet 130 “ express their significant other differently. However, “The Red, Red, Rose depicts the Falling in new love through that of a young man’s eyes, and Shakespeare’s sonnet 130 depicts a more realistic picture of the mistress he writes about; which leaves the reader to wonder if beauty is really in the eyes of the beholder. (Burns, 2014)
... of the love shared between a man and a woman. The aspects of jealousy, vanity, pride, obsessive desire, beauty, and flirtatious behavior are contained in both poems. The desire to completely possess another person's love and affection are related through a dramatic monologue. Robert Browning compares the love Duke Ferrara has for his Duchess with the obsession of Porphyria's lover. The Duke's has a jealous, stubborn, and irrational love for his Duchess. Likewise, Porphyria's is the recipient of a sinister, uncontrolled, and destructive love. Her mysterious admirer is overwhelmed by Porphyria's supreme beauty and her sensual mannerisms. His jealousy and obsession for Porphyria, compels him to act upon his depraved thoughts that will secure her total love and devotion. Porphyria and the Duchess experience similar outcomes that result in the death of both women.
At the time of its writing, Shakespeare's one hundred thirtieth sonnet, a highly candid, simple work, introduced a new era of poems. Shakespeare's expression of love was far different from traditional sonnets in the early 1600s, in which poets highly praised their loved ones with sweet words. Instead, Shakespeare satirizes the tradition of comparing one's beloved to the beauties of the sun. From its opening phrase "My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun", shocks the audience because it does not portray a soft, beautiful woman. Despite the negative connotations of his mistress, Shakespeare speaks a true woman and true love. The sonnet is a "how-to" guide to love.
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.”
She says “writing can be an expression of one 's innermost feelings. It can allow the reader to tap into the deepest recesses of one 's heart and soul. It is indeed the gifted author that can cause the reader to cry at her words and feel hope within the same poem. Many authors as well, as ordinary people use writing as a way to release emotions.” She makes plenty points in her review that I completely agree with. After reading the poem I think that Elizabeth Barret Browning is not only the author of her famous poem, but also the speaker as well. She is a woman simply expressing her love for her husband in a passionate way through poetry. In the 1st Line it reads “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.” A woman drunk in love she is, and next she begins to count the numerous ways she can love her significant
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day” a poem written by William Shakespeare, is the eighteenth sonnet by this famous writer and a poet. Shakespeare, a popular english poet had written fifty four sonnets. “Shall I compare thee to summer’s day” is the most popular of all the fifty four sonnets which emphasized Shakespeare’s love poem with the theme of love. The poem, “If thou must love me” is also a popular poem and a sonnet (number fourteen) written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Browning’s poem revolves around the theme of love towards her expectations from her lover to be. Both shakespeare’s and Browning”s poems are completely two different poems but still they share some literary terms in common. Both poems dealt with the same subject matter even though the both described love in their different point of view. Both speakers expresses true natural love and the eternity of true love.
“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
In conclusion, Browning uses many different techniques of conveying the complexities of human passion, and does this effectively from many points of view on love. However, it does seem that Browning usually has a slightly subdued, possibly even warped view of love and romance ? and this could be because his own love life was publicly perceived to be ultimately perfect but retrospectively it appears his marriage with Elizabeth Browning was full of doubt and possessiveness, as seen in ? Any Wife To Any Husband? which most critics believe to be based on the troubled relationship between the Browning?s.
Shakespeare's sonnets are a romantic and charming series of poems. His use of rhyme and passionate, eloquent language serve to illuminate his strong feelings. These techniques were probably the most fluent way for such a writer as him to express the immeasurable love that he obviously felt for his mysterious lady. Examining the numerous ways Shakespeare found to describe it, the reader believes that this love was undoubtedly lasting and authentic. He often made heart-felt comments about his emotions that could also suit lovers in the present day. Because of this, and the fact that people read them yet, Shakespeare's sonnets are timeless and universal, just like the concept of love itself.