Some Poets Attitudes To Love Essay Example For Students

Some Poets Attitudes To Love Essay A love poem is a piece of poetry that describes a positive emotion for one from another. Love poems can come in many different forms. There are free verse love poems, where poets use no particular rhyming scheme or rules, but they let their poetry flow. You can also find many ballads about love. In Elizabethan times, often, sonnets were written to lovers or about them. These are fourteen-lined, short verses that often portray emotion very well. Love poems often use metaphors to describe emotion because love is such a strong emotion that it cant be described physically to another. Christina Rossetti was a Victorian poet who often wrote about love. In her poem Amen, it is hard to tell what she is writing about. It could be love or even life. At the start of each verse, she makes a definite statement and then questions it. She starts with It is over. What is over? This implies that she is unsure of herself or is not quite sure what is happening with her life or relationship. The poem acts out her thought process. To start with, she seems sure that It is over. Lets assume that she is describing a relationship. She has a chance to think and decides that she doesnt know what is over. This could imply that she doesnt know which part of the relationship is over or why. She could be questioning it because although it may be over to him, it is far from over with her she is still very much in love with him. Her questioning of her statement could mean that she doesnt agree with it; deep down she feels differently. Then, as if in confirmation of this, she denies that the statement is true. Rossetti uses nature to describe how the relationship was built and why it still exists. She says Harvest days we toiled to sow for: now the sheaves are gathered newly. By this, I think she means that hard work has been put into the relationship to make it work and so it is not failing, but a small crop still exists and is still growing. A harvest is used to describe the relationship (or the life) of Rossetti. A harvest usually symbolizes life, comfort, food and mirth. A good harvest is a positive thing. In the next verse, again, she still seems very unsure of the way things are going in her life. Another one of her thought processes is used to begin the second verse. She states, It is finished. But then goes on to ask, What is finished? very unsure. However, in this verse, she decides to agree with her statement that yes, much has finished. She says, Lives are finished; time diminished; was the fallow field left unsown? By this, I think she is trying to say that, although the actual relationship or her life hasnt ended, much has. I think that she is trying to say that whilst trying to make relationships work or perhaps trying to fulfill an ambition, she had been wasting time because now, her chances may be lost, after all that work! In this verse, she seems to be asking herself whether or not the whole thing wasnt just a waste of time. In the third verse, she states, It suffices and she seems to be a lot more positive about love. She says, spring shall bloom where now the ice is. She believes that everything will be all right in the end, even if it seems like a waste of time at the moment. Again, she uses nature to describe the love and/or happiness she will feel. Spring is a season where new life is born, blossoms flower and all the snow melts, like a new start. I think this is what she sees will happen a new start. Instead of cold, hard ice there will be joy and new life. She is hopeful. Poetry Analysis of "Common Grounds" EssayIn the second verse, Walsh describes another type of relationship that she will not enter into. She uses religious words to help her to put across the fact that she doesnt want to be over-praised or seen as being perfect. Instead, she would like a realistic relationship with a partner that is sincere, and doesnt make her feel uncomfortable. She says, I am no doll to dress and sit for feeble worship. Walsh knows that she isnt perfect, and she knows that she never will be she would like a man to accept that and still love her. In verse three, Walsh says, than gratify your clamorous desire. His clamorous desire is to have sex. Walsh refuses also to enter into a relationship based around sex. She says that she will not willingly enter into a relationship that is just for him. In the last verse, Walsh describes the type of relationship she will enter into willingly. She needs trust, loyalty, a friendship and comradeship; she wants the relationship to be equal and realistic. Walsh says, Together we may know the purity and height of passion, and of joy and sorrow. By this, she means that she would like a soul mate that she can share all her experiences with, the good and the bad. She then goes on to explain how she will feel if this man did come along, she would become totally engulfed with her love for him. She would feel secure in the relationship because she would trust him to give back the love she gave. She describes the potential love between them as something that would be the most perfect thing ever. She says hand holding hand until we reach the very heart of God. By this, I think that Walsh means that they will happily spend their lives together until they die and reach heaven. It could also mean that they spend their lives together until their love cannot become more perfect and takes its place with God. This poem has no real rhyming scheme so I find it more passionate and flowing than those by Rossetti. I think Walshs attitude to love is different to Rossettis. Both see it as a wonderful thing but I feel that Rossetti doesnt decide whom she loves, but lets herself love anyone. I dont think Rossetti is practical enough to think abut how the relationship will be long-term; she is passionate and gets caught up in the moment. Walsh, however, thinks about relationships far into the future and is brave enough to say no. I think, out of the two, Walshs love has to be the truest, because she doesnt assume that everything will be perfect just because there is love. She realizes that things arent always to plan so she plans in advance. Of the two poems, I enjoyed Christina Walshs poem more.