In Wild Oats It explains that a person, over the course of time, comes to realise that his greatest desires of love, are unattainable, and second best things will have to suffice. The central purpose of this poem is to show that love is one of these great desires and despite flashes of promise it contains scarcely anything that is more than fragmentary. Larkin reveals this through tone and diction. Both poets seem to focus a lot on the physical side of love where lust and desire are involved however Abse makes it sound more sensual and even spiritual when he speaks of Eros in his poem. Larkin portrays this sense of objectification in his poem with regards to woman as he describes a woman as a ‘bosomy English rose’ and then follows on to call her ‘beautiful’ throughout the poem portraying the sexual lust involved with love.
Elizabeth Barrett-Browning’s sonnet sequence Sonnets from the Portugeuse, explores the experence of idealised love in the patriarchal confines of the Victorian era, juxtaposed against F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby, which comments on the unatanability of idealised love due to the corruption of the American dream. Through an exploration of love, both composers subvert societies preconcieved attitutdes to love through the reccurring motif of ‘Plato’s ladder of love’. Barrett-Browning’s poems highlight the realities of a spiritual, connected love, contrasting to Fitzgeralds commentary on the illusionary goals of ‘true’ platonic love in the post WWI hedonistic, materialistic society. Barrett-Browning conveys the Romantic ideals of platonic love, against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. The Petrarchan sonnet form has an inbuilt dialectic structure, enabling her to have a progressive narrative, which follows the path of the Platonic system.
The theme of the 16th century sonnets was courtly love. It is the traditional love which is not necessarily lived and derived from the love conventions as set in Petrarch’s sonnets to his beloved Laura. The central point or core in any courtly love sonnet is a complaint of the speaker towards something in his beloved. The major themes of courtly love sonnets are: the speaker’s sleeplessness, the cruelty of the beloved, the renunciation of love, the fire of the speaker’s feelings contrasted by the ice of the speaker’s feelings contrasted by the ice of the beloved’s feelings, and, finally, the unattainability of the beloved. I will discuss Sidney’s “Come sleep!” whose major theme is sleeplessness, Wyatt’s “Whoso List to Hunt” whose major theme is the renunciation of love, Spenser’s “Of this World’s Theatre” whose major theme is the fire of the speaker’s feelings versus the ice of the beloved’s feelings, and Spenser’s sonnet 75 “One day I wrote her name upon the Strand” whose major theme is the beauty of his beloved and the eternity of his poetry.
Also the simile “like a silken knot,” the use of this simile is comparing her to something soft and fragile, therefore there is a theme of possessiveness and this shows that lower class women in the Elizabethan era were easily manipulated by higher class men. However, the “Lord” shows his commitment towards “Cousin Kate”. “I watched her walk along the lane,” in this quote the verb shows his concentration on Cousin Kate and implies that he is falling deeply in love with her at first sight. Therefore, there is a theme of falling in love at first sight not only in the poem “Cousin Kate” but also in Romeo and Juliet. In a dialogue with religious metaphors that figure Juliet as a Saint and Romeo as a pilgrim, he tries to convince Juliet to kiss her as it would be the only way in which Romeo can be free from
3.Presentation of relationships in 'To His Coy Mistress' and 'Ghazal' Both 'Ghazal' and 'To His Coy Mistress' present relationships as self-seeking and manipulative, as the narrators in both poems desire the sexual fulfilment of their lover. In 'To His Coy Mistress' Andrew Marvell uses form for effect. The narrator in the poem is trying to convince his love to have sex with him, and his whole argument can be seen as humorous and playful. One way we see this is through the use of rhyming couplets which are employed throughout the poem: 'Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, Lady, were no crime'. The extended use of rhyming couplets has a comic effect in this poem as the fast paced rhymes read like a collection of little jokes with fast punch lines.
The poem Anne Hathaway is a tribute to Shakespeare. It is written in the form of a sonnet – a traditional love poem. Duffy uses the character of Anne Hathaway to present a feeling of love. “The bed we loved in was a spinning world of forests, castles, torchlight, clifftops, seas where he would dive for pearls.” A deep feeling of love is conveyed metaphorically by comparing the couple’s bed to a romantic, fantasy world. All of the places mentioned are key settings for some of Shakespeare's most famous works, this shows how special Hathaway considers the couple's lovemaking.
Daniel Tran Instructor: Kelly Murray ENG 102-03 Oct 16th, 2013 Critical Essay #1: Short Fiction Thesis Essay Both “The Storm” by Kate Chopin and “The Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck discuss about the love, sex, marriage and the relationship between wife and husband. The author of the Storm conveys to the readers that marriage is traditional but normal sexual practice could be accepting. In “The Chrysanthemums”, Steinbeck displays women lacks of ability and power as men in that period of time. Throughout the readings, I recognize similarities between “the Storm” and “the Chrysanthemums” in themes of desire for change, the important of sexual fulfillment, and inequality of gender. In “The Storm”, Chopin expresses her opinion and idea to speak for marriage women’s sexual desire in the late1800’s.
Clayton Pereira Write about the way relationships between men and women Are presented in Romeo and Juliet and a selection of poetry by Philip Larkin. Introduction People regard Romeo and Juliet as a stereo typical romantic love story. In certain ways it does conform to expectations of love for example the famous balcony scene. The setting is peaceful, dark and romantic with references to light. However Shakespeare also shows attitudes towards relationships between men and woman weren’t straight forward in Elizabethan England.
06/14/2012 YASH PANCHAL Love and Seduction “My Last Duchess” by Browning and “To His Coy Mistress” by Marvell are examples of two men searching for the right words to express their emotions towards a woman. The speakers in both poems are talking about love and seduction. Even though they both are written in two different centuries, both pieces have remarkable similarities as well as some of the common expected differences. “To His Coy Mistress” values women and their love they give, while “My Last Duchess” totally humiliates the role of women in society. “My Last Duchess" and "To His Coy Mistress" shows the act of the men in these two poems.
The poem’s theme appears to be about unrequited love and a man wooing his “coy mistress” to sleep with him, but this poem does has a deeper meaning, which is really impressive and therefore is striking. The theme of mortality is highlighted in this poem through word choice and by using imagery which reinforces the idea of death. Words relating to death such as “ ashes” and “grave” are used to emphasise the lack of time that we have and the stark contrast between the slow, idyllic first stanza and the sped up, heavier second stanza shows the difference between the idealistic eternity and the reality that we are all mortal and have to die at some point. Another deeper theme introduced is the idea of “carpe diem” which is shown through the lustier language in the poem, word choice such as “time devour”, and also through the quickened pace of the second stanza. The speaker is not simply asking the “coy mistress” to sleep with him, what he is saying is if there was all the time in the world then life would be ideal but there is not so they have to live for the moment.