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I selected the poem “If Thou Must Love Me” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, because the title quickly grabbed my attention. I found a critic’s analysis of the poem in which I really agreed with much of what was said but also found a portion of which I disagreed. This critic contrasted this poem to another famous poem, “Let Me Not” by William Shakespeare. The critic felt that both poems were about love, but each took a slightly different view point. I agreed that both were about real love with Browning’s poem focusing on wanting someone to love her for the right reasons and not out of feelings of pity nor physical attraction, and Shakespeare’s on how true love is a permanent feeling and does not fade with time. I think the critic is accurate in saying that the poet finds reasons other than pure love as “superficial” and susceptible to change further changing the love itself.
The part I did not agree with would have to have been the last sentence of the critique. The critic stated that “This poem shows true insecurity on Elizabeth’s part, and a possible fear of being loved, or not being worthy of love.” I did not believe that Elizabeth showed any sort of insecurity in her poem, but rather tried to make her lover understand the way she wanted his love for her to be. She told him how it should be, but I did not think it was out of insecurity but the desire to make sure his love was not based on something superficial.
Within “If Thou Must Love Me” I found several poetic devices including point of view, rhyme, rhyme scheme, and imagery. The poet used first person point of view for her poem which I believed helped her readers place themselves in her position and truly feel the emotions she tried to convey. There was a definite rhyme scheme within the poem which was abba abba ccc dcd. I think the main purpose of this rhyme scheme was to help with the flow of the poem. The reader then was capable of understanding the deeper...