Compare the way in which the pre

Compare the way in which the pre-1914 poets you have studied have presented their different ideas about love Essay Love is portrayed as a strong emotion in both an optimistic and pessimistic way in nearly all pre-1914 love poetry. When love is presented as pessimistic, for example Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci or Lord Byrons When We Two Parted it is usually with a harsh tone of rue and lament, whereas when love is presented as optimistic, like in Rossettis A Birthday or Clares First Love it is usually a traditional, conventional love that has a huge impact on the poet. Keats shows the physical impact love can have in La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a ballad which describes how a young knight falls in love at first sight with a mystifying woman upon meeting her for the first time. He is hit suddenly, and is physically weakened by the woman, full beautiful a faerys child. The knight is left with anguish moist and fever dew. The reader learns that after the woman leaves he begins to feel ill, and is left alone and palely loitering for her to return. We learn that love has had a negative effect on him. The poem is written in a ballad form and Keats uses archaic language, which is consistent with the poems medieval theme, given the presence of the knight in the poem. Ballads were originally part of the oral tradition, a well-known literary tradition. The ballad is a very old form of poetry, it was used long ago when many people couldnt read so usually took the form of a type of song so it was easy to remember, therefore the poems structure adds to the story-telling theme because the poem is a conversation the knight is telling the other person about the woman who he has fallen in love with. La Belle Dame Sans Merci can be interpreted as a poem that focuses on drug addiction the woman is the drug and lures the knight in until he is addicted to her. The ways he sees the woman are dreamlike and out of this world which could be interpreted as the result of taking a hallucinogenic drug. The way the knight is described is also how drug addicts are often portrayed, haggard, woe-begone and palely loitering. In Clares First Love, the poet presents love much like Keats. Clare explains how love struck emphasising how sudden and quick it was, almost like lightning hitting him. He describes love as so sudden and so sweet. The repetition of so and the alliteration of the s shows how strong the feeling actually was. Clare illustrates the physical effects that the girl has on him, blood rushed to my face and for him it seemed midnight at noonday which shows he has lost all concept of time because he is so in awe of this girl. This really communicates to the reader the effect love has had on him, it so intense that Clare writes blood burnt around my heart, conveying that the feeling is so powerful it hurts. The alliteration on the b makes a strong and definite sound as the feeling Clare is trying to convey is so strong. Most of the verbs Clare uses, for example stole struck and rushed illustrate a distinct lack of control, and the speed at which the feeling hit him. The enjambment and regular rhyme scheme also enforce this. Clare is suddenly hit by the girls beauty, her face bloomed like a sweet flower. The word sweet conjures images of youth and purity, and describing her face like a flower shows he thinks she is fragile and beautiful, to him she is almost perfect; he is presenting love as a natural, simple feeling. The simple structure of the poem backs this idea up. The poems tone is innocent and light, and the nature imagery of the flower re-establishes the purity of Clares feeling of love for this girl. A lot of 19th century love poetry contained nature imagery using flowers etc as it is effective at conveying innocence and purity, because it was comparing a woman to a flower, showing that her beauty is like that of a flower, serene and demure, natural and virtuous these were both very important in that time. Similar to First Love is A Birthday by Christina Rossetti. Rossetti also uses nature imagery, for example my heart is like a singing bird and my heart is like an apple tree, however she also uses rich and luxurious imagery to describe her love coming to her, raise me a dais of silk and down and, hang it with vair and purple dyes. Rossettis poem could be alternatively interpreted to have religious meaning as it isnt clear who her love actually is and whether it is romantic love like in Clares First Love or whether it is simply celebrating her faith. Emily Bronte - wuthering heights EssayHe thinks his money and name make him untouchable, showing how arrogant he really is. The Duke seems not to care about his wife, but he gives himself away when he shows his anger, sir, t was all one! the exclamation mark shows how annoyed he is, so his last wife is obviously still playing on his mind. This is also shown when he pulls back the curtain that covers the portrait. He says, None puts by the curtain I have drawn for you, but I showing his possessive streak again, indicating he still wants control over her even though she is dead. It is clear to the reader that the Dukes idea of a wife is something to show off, a trophy wife almost like an item in a collection. The Duke likes to collect beauty around him, for example the painting of his last duchess and the statue of Neptune that he shows off to the listener on their way out, and he tries to impress the listener by boasting that Claus of Innsbruck, obviously a well-known name, had made the statue for him. He also shows off that Fra Pandolf painted the picture of his last duchess. It is obvious that the Duke is looking for a wife who will completely succumb to his every need, and one who is beautiful and deemed flawless, and he will not settle for anything less. To the reader it is clear that the Duke has a completely materialistic view of what a wife should be, and would never even think of partaking in a relationship with co-equal love and mutual respect, like in A Woman to Her Lover. Similar to My Last Duchess is When We Two Parted by Lord Byron. The poem is about the end of a romantic and passionate affair of the heart, and shows the regret the poet has once the affair is over. The lovers have separated and the poet gets to hear that the woman has since had other affairs which have resulted in her gaining a bad reputation. Byron writes, I hear thy name spoken, and share in its shame meaning that when he hears people taking about the woman, he is ashamed to be associated with her because she has such a bad reputation now. There is also a lot of alliteration on the s sounds whish stresses the secrecy of their affair, as it is almost like the sound Sshh which is used to silence people. He is obviously bitter about the relationship, and feels like he doesnt know the woman at all anymore because she has changed so much. He shows this by saying how should I greet thee? in silence and tears. This ending is also very similar to how the poem starts off, indicating that the poet has not moved on and is still in love with the woman. It also shows that although they were lovers, he feels he doesnt know her anymore and doesnt know how to greet the woman because what he has found out about her has changed his feelings so much. To conclude, I think that the poets portrayal of love is varied depending on what stage love is at for the poet, for example in Byrons When We Two Parted which is full of lament and bitterness because he has found out his previous lover has moved on and has gained a bad reputation in doing so. The poem reflects his feelings because the tone is one of resentment. In complete contrast to this is Clares First Love in which describes the beginnings of love as exciting and mystifying, but a happy experience, full of innocence, purity and virtuousness. A lot of pre-1914 poets seem to have almost the same opinion on one principle of love, illustrated in A Woman to Her Lover, whereby a couple have mutual respect and love for each other and the partnership has a co-equal love. When this is put into practice, happiness is usually seen to be the outcome, as in A Birthday. However, when love goes wrong, i. e. there is no mutual respect and admiration, or the love isnt reciprocated, the result is usually depressing or pessimistic, like in La Belle Dame Sans Merci or My Last Duchess. In my opinion, most poets views on love are characteristic of the conventional optimistic and romantic view, which however is sometimes unrealistic.