Love poetry is an expression of a poet’s real emotions. It’s a way a expressing your emotions without actually talking to anyone. I believe that love is a feeling that is needed to be human, without it there would be emptiness, and loneliness in our hearts, and is the key to survival in life. Whilst some individuals may believe that love has nothing to do with us being engaged in a relationship with someone, but by their physical appearance. However that might partially true I think that also a common interest has to be shared. The definition for Love in the Oxford dictionary is, ‘feeling a strong emotional, and sexual attraction’ to someone. It is a feeling that cannot be fully described in words, but by an invisible bond that connects that special someone to you.
In this essay I will be explore the view of love from different poets. The three poems I will be comparing are, ‘First Love’ by John Clare, ‘Villegiature’ by Edith Nesbit, and ‘A Woman to her Lover’ by Christina Walsh. I will compare each poets view on love by examining the subject, tone, imagery, form, and feelings used by the poets.
At the beginning of ‘First Love’ John Clare tells us his feelings of his unrequited experience at the sight of his first love. He tells us his feelings by making us imagine that the reader is him by using a happy tone. The poet describes the girl he loves as, ‘love so sudden and so sweet’ to emphasise the perfection of her beauty. Every line makes me believe that the situation John’s in is very realistic, and it helps us understand his reaction towards love. Whereas in ‘Vigillature’ Nesbit is expressing her feelings towards love as a more of disgust, and that love is something that is a waste of time. Also, ‘what pretty things you said’ Nesbit’s explanation of love is that how when given the right mood, location or state of mind we can sometimes forget what we really think and feel.
However in A ‘Woman To Her Lover’ Christina Walsh if expressing her herself by saying that she is, ‘no doll to dress and sit for feeble worship’, meaning that she is not a trophy wife who is only there to be looked at, and not listened to. Her meaning o love is easily interpreted in the poem as she says to her lover that she wants to, ‘live and work, to love and die’ together, but will not let herself fall in love unless her lover agrees to these conditions.
Each poet is talking about different types of love from different viewpoints and experiences. In First Love John is talking about how it feels to be in love for the first time. However in Villegature, Edith Nesbit’s understanding of love is wasting time, and that there no point to it. However Christina Walsh does believe in love, yet wants more than just love she wants equality between her, and her lover, this is probably said, because of the time she was in, and how women were inferior to me, and were not at all treated fairly. This shows to me that love is complicated, and that each person has there own view of it.
Clare is the only poet to have a different view of love, as he is confused about what he is feeling, so he uses rhetorical questions to question himself, and maybe love itself, ”Are flowers the winters choice?”
The use of these rhetorical questions really makes me understand the feelings of confusion that are going through John Clare. However Christina’s view on love stays the same through out the poem, and leaves us in doubt that she was in a time of radical prejudices against women, ‘Do you come to bend me to your will’, and ‘As conqueror to the vanquished’ show how Christina longs to be freed from the dominance held by the male in that time period.
Also the same goes for Villegature where although the story starts of as a typical romantic love poem with lots of classic, almost clich�d, love poetry turns out to be a twist, when we are given the impression that the ‘ghost’ is not quite the perfect love object that the poem leads us to believe. And also the last line, ‘Remember how you always bore me!’ leaves us in no doubt that the ‘ghost’ is a bore and the poet does not love him.
The three poems each have a main image. First Love exposes John Clare as a novice when it comes to love at first sight as this ‘beauty’ has such a great impact upon his whole being. However in Villegature, Edith Nesbit makes reference to a love story, ‘And yet you found Romeo’s way…and kissed me’. Shows that she likes the ghost a lot if given the right mood or place, yet it changes as she finds out that the ‘ghost’ is, ‘Deep in dull books, had hardly missed’ her. And in A Woman To Her Lover Christina Walsh contradicts the views held by men at that time of how women should act, ‘To bear your children, wearing out my life In drudgery and silence’ shows that they do not have any privileges except to bear children, take care of the home, and they cant have any jobs except for a teaching.
The language, and tones that have been set out in these poems also change as the poems progress. In First Love John Clare uses personification to give a human like characteristic to his heart, ‘and stole my heart away. Also the repletion of the word love (‘love so sudden and so sweet…and love’s appeal to know’) indicates sureness of emotion that he is in love. In all as the poets tone changes from happy to confusion, and is indicated by rhetorical questions, ”is love’s bed always snow?” and ”Are flowers the winter’s choice?” including these language devices the poet has a simple poem so uses uncomplicated punctuation devices. And he form of the poem is in an ‘abab’ rhyme scheme, which indicates restrictions or boundaries.
In Villegature the language devices that are used are alliteration to emphasises the slowness and boring of love, ‘ Your solid self’. Nesbit uses a metaphor, “By the pear tree to my room, Your ghost last night climbed uninvited”. The room is a metaphor for the woman’s mind and the ghost is a metaphor for her lover. The ryming scheme for this poem is again in ‘abab’, which again indicates restrictions.
Also in A Woman To Her Love, military images such as, ‘conqueror..bondslave’ are used to show the dominance role held by the male at that time. ‘A wingless angel’ is a methapor which scorns for women all thmesleves to be dominated. And the repetiton of ‘if that’ creates an aggressive tone. Along with the language devices the form is written in free verse, and hints no limits/boundries, and also each stanza gives different views of aspects of romance.
In conclusion the poets I have discussed in this essay all talk about love in different viewpoints. Some of them give off positive, and negative views on love due to their experiences. This tells me that love can be really good or really bad, it also shows me that love is different for everyone, and that love does not have any favourites.
