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Compare the different ways in which
the idea of love has been treated and presented
in any poems you have studied.
A popular medium to use in the 16th-1th century was love poetry. People used poetry to express their feelings and emotions to other people. For example In the 16th and 17th centuries, sonnets a common form of romantic poetry, were written in that time to express their feeling of love towards their partner or lover.
However love has many different emotions, positive and negative. For example, friendship, enduring and love are all positive, but on the other hand love can be jealous, possessive and frustrated. These poems cover the whole range of emotions.
Two poems which illustrate this are, ‘Porphyria's Lover' by Robert Browning, and ‘Shall I Compare Thee…?' by William Shakespeare. Poems were given to their wives or lovers, as a gift, not unlike the flowers or box of chocolates that we give today; although, poems were seen to immortalise the women's beauty, or sometimes their love for each other.
‘Porphyrias lover', written by Robert Browning, is about a woman called Porphyria who goes to meet her lover in a cottage, when the weather outside is particularly stormy. Porphyria walks in and warms the cottage and the mood completely changes. Porphyria looks into her lover's eyes, and says how she loves him, her lover becomes very jealous and possessive, then is driven to murdering Porphyria at the precise moment of true love; with her own hair.
Porphyria's lover is a narrative poem, written in archaic romantic language of the 1th century. The poem's rhyming scheme is in Ballad Form that tells a story. The nature of love in this poem is very possessive; Porphyria is murdered as an act of sheer jealousy and possessiveness.
It begins with a perfect example of pathetic fallacy (when the weather reflects the human mood)
"The rain set early into night,
The sullen wind was soon awake,
It tore the Elm tops down for spite,"
The raging wind and storm, the first three lines immediately portray the idea that something bad is going to happen such as the murder of Porphyria, it sets a threatening mood and suggests danger. This sentence is also an example of personification; ‘The sullen wind was soon awake, It tore the elm tops down for spite,' the wind doesn't wake up and tear things down in anger, but in doing this Robert Browning emphasises the idea of a really bad storm. The words ‘sullen', which means moody and glum, and ‘spite', which means anger and bitterness are adjectives to describe human emotions, so using these words gives the reader the idea that the tree is alive.
When Porphyria enters the cottage the tone of the poem changes completely; it is no longer violent or angry, it is quite warm and sexual
"When glided in Porphyria; straight
She shut the cold out and the storm…
…and all the cottage warm…
…And made her smooth white shoulder bare"
She changes the mood of the poem and introduces romance. The way in which Porphyria enters and makes her shoulder bare, would in the 1th Century be considered to be quite a sexual image.
Robert Browning uses imagery to put across his ideas, for example; in line 4 Porphyria's lover says
"As a shut bud holds a bee,
I warily opened her lids again
Laughed the blue eyes without a stain."
This simile tells us that Porphyria's lover is afraid to open Porphyrias eyes; like you would if you were to open a flower that has an agitated bee trapped inside, in doing this he also tells us that he does show some remorse and that he fears the consequences for what he has done.
He also uses a technique called pathos, which is used to elicit sympathy from the reader to the certain person or thing
"Three times her little throat around…
…The smiling rosy little head"
The use of the word little is used to portray Porphyria as vulnerable, weak and fragile.
The motive for the killing of Porphyria is very possessive and selfish, which at first seems like an unpredictable murder; judging by the mood of the poem. There seemed to be no suggestion of a murder, but then when I looked at the poem in more depth, I realised that the actions of Porphyria's killer could have been predicted. The mood of the poem goes from being romantic and sexual, to being quite excited and anxious. Then Porphyria's lover becomes confused and his heart begins to race.
After the murder Porphyria's lover feels that what he had done was a good thing
"And all night long we have not stirred,
And yet God has not said a word!"
He feels that God has not punished him for what he has done, so it was a justified murder.
This makes me feel quite sorry for Porphyria, as she has been strangled to death with her own hair, because of an over possessive lover. And yet the murderer feels as if he has done the right thing. I believe that Porphyria's lover is an egotistical, over possessive and selfish lover. The love in this poem is a negative emotion, because the lover only wants to keep Porphyria for himself.
The second poem I am going to write about is ‘Shall I compare thee…?', written by William Shakespeare in the 16th century. It is a love poem written to Shakespeare's wife comparing her to a summers' day and it provides a contrast in mood and tone to Porphyrias Lover.
It is a sonnet; a poem written in iambic pentameter with 14 lines (three quatrains and one rhyming couplet) and has short thesis, which are very condensed. The rhyming scheme of the poem is the same as a standard sonnet. The tone of this poem is celebratory, generous, affectionate, respectful and romantic. Although the romance in this poem is not selfish or possessive like Porphyria's Lover, the romance is generous rather than possessive the poet wishes to celebrate the love and the beauty of his lover.
The poem begins with a rhetorical question
"Shall I compare thee to a summers day?"
This is a rhetorical question because Shakespeare doesn't need to reply to the question, as we already know the answer. She is more Perfect than a summers day because summer has its imperfections Summer does not last forever, even in the summer the weather can still turn bad, and sometimes the heat gets too much.
"Summer's lease hath all to short a date"
Summer doesn't last forever and is often too short; this is what Shakespeare is trying to tell us here. But his lovers beauty on the other hand does last forever, so she is better than summer.
After each Quatrain the Shakespeare begins a new idea. In the first quatrain the idea is that she is more beautiful than a summers day, in the second the idea is that summer has its faults, and in the third he explains that the lines on the poem immortalize her beauty.
"Sometimes too hot the eye of heaven shines."
Sometimes the sun gets too hot but she does not. The eye of heaven is a metaphor for the sun
In the last quatrain as I explained, portrays the idea that the poem immortalizes her beauty, even as we read it now we imagine this lady's beauty, and so to a certain extent Shakespeare was right
"Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,"
This is a pun as the reference to lines could mean the lines on your face but that would not make her eternally beautiful; what he means is the lines of the poem, as it is his words, which have captured her beauty and allows us to imagine her.
"So long as men can breath and eyes can see
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee."
As long as the poem survives so does her beauty concealed in the poems lines. His poem has immortalized her beauty.
Shakespeare also uses the sounds of the words to put across the mood of the poem. He uses a technique called sibilance, which is the repetition of the ‘s' or ‘sh' sound. Although he also uses the ‘f', ‘w' and ‘m' sounds which like ‘s' sounds are relaxed and calm. Using ‘s', ‘f', ‘w' and ‘m', which are soft and gentle sounds, are appropriate for the soft gentle mood of the poem.
"Nor shall death brag thou wandr'st in his shade,"
This sentence has a calm feel to it because of the soft sounding words in it, which in turn makes the mood of the poem calm and relaxed.
I think that this poem would have been an excellent gift to give to your wife, as it is not selfish and possessive like Porphyria's Lover but it is generous, positive, enduring and romantic
Although these two poems share a common theme of love, they differ in several ways
· Shall I compare thee has a romantic and selfless theme of love, whereas Porphyria's lover is selfish sexual and to the end quite morbid and sombre.
· The tone of the poem in Porphyria's Lover changes throughout but Shall I compare thee has a constant tone.
The poem I most preferred was Porphyria's lover as it was dramatic and interesting, it was also narrative which I think makes it more interesting as it has a beginning, middle and end.
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