With His Venom, Golden Bells, Remembering Golden Bells

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Harmony Galambos ENG 102 Professor Makonie 21 October 2012 With His Venom, Golden Bells, Remembering Golden Bells Although Sappho and Po Chu-i experience love and pain differently, they both prove that love and pain are inseparable. The poem “With His Venom” written by Sappho and the poems written by Po Chu-i “Golden Bells” and “Remembering Golden Bells” are poems that describe human experiences that metaphorically express how love and pain are inseparable in more than one concept of love. Sappho was a famous poet from ancient Greek, who lived about 600 BC; she is considered the greatest female poets of the classical world. Additionally, Po Chu-i was a gentleman poet and government official during the golden age of the Tang dynasty in China. The poem “With His Venom” illustrates romantic love that is described as bittersweet (Sappho, page.772, line 3). However, in the poems “Golden Bells” and “Remembering Golden Bells” Po Chu-i speaks about the love of a father and child, which can also be construed as bittersweet. First, “With His Venom” is a poem about love and the pain that comes with it. The poem begins by saying ‘“With his venom”’ (Sappho, p.772, line 1). Here she uses the word venom to illustrate a perception of love. Sappho uses the word as a metaphor to represent the pain that love creates. Like the pain that venom would cause the human body to feel. She then goes on to say, ‘“Irresistible and bittersweet”’ (Sappho, p.772, lines 2 and 3). Again she is metaphorically speaking about love. Love is irresistible at the same time the pain from which love invokes makes it bittersweet. Although people may not understand its purpose, mankind lives their life around love. Living is growing and experiencing both love and pain. Although, the word bittersweet creates a contradiction it is, probably, quite a suitable definition of love. It is used to

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