Using nature to express picturesque images, Heaney portrays the purity of the unspoken terms of love in one of his love poems – “Twice Shy”. The title of the poem “Twice Shy” seems to have been taken from the age-old proverb, “once bitten, twice shy”, and we are, as a result, led to expect that the characters in this poem have had a bitter experience in the past, therefore they are treading carefully and attempting to recoup. There are five stanzas of 6 lines, most lines structured as single sentences which draw out tension and nervousness. The rhyme scheme is abcbdb – the rhythmic cadence emphasizes the speaker’s as well as the characters’ feelings and emotions. The theme of this poem is personal feelings – the conflict between needs of the flesh and teaching of society codes of behavior.
Common associations of the word flea often include the existence of a parasitic organism. Contradicting this association is the connotation created by John Donne in, “The Flea,” in which a flea is compared to the desired intimate love between the speaker and their desired love interest. Hence, it is used as a metaphor. Additional insight is provided by the Donne’s personification of love as a flea because it suggests that the love offered by the speaker may not be reciprocal. The form of the poem suggests that despite the possibility of failure, the speaker is willing to persevere through any doubts held by their love interest with hopes a greater future.
While the poetic devices and techniques used by Shakespeare creates secondary themes of physical appearance, women, femininity, literature and writing, the main overarching theme of his sonnets is love, be that for the dark lady or the young man. Shakespeare uses powerful imagery in Sonnet 130 to portray the object of his affection in a negative light, even though the concluding couplet betrays his true feelings for the dark woman despite this imagery (Leonard). The images used in this sonnet were very powerful and relevant to a largely European audience, of the 16th and 17th
Keats has grown as an individual in his past life until he met his love, which led to the creation of his most popular odes. Beck had stated “to write something which is an entity in its self which all the meaning can be found by simply exploring the way words were in the poem” this is shown through Keats’ poems with the word ‘love’ in both La Belle Dame Sans Merci and Ode on a Grecian Urn. ‘And sure in language strange she said - I love thee true’ the effects of this line is to exemplify the differences of love. A language barrier does not stop the illusion of love, seduction and emotion involved. The repetition of the word ‘never, never’ in ‘Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss’ emphasizes the idea of reoccurring love that is constantly chasing.
The author only ends a phrase with an exclamation point, emphasizing the speaker’s excitement for engaging in a sexual encounter with her lover once again. Dickinson’s use of a nautical theme carries throughout the poem, as she compares her love to things such as the sea. The speaker is free from frustration when she finally reaches her love. Dickinson’s religious views and life-style choices were extremely different from those of her family and her friends. She lived in a very conservative time period.
Romeo is a great reader of love poetry, and from the beginning we could see that his portrayal of love for Rosaline seemed that he was trying to act out what he had read about. When Juliet first meets him, she says that he ‘kisses by th’ book’, meaning that he kisses by the rules. This shows that Romeo’s kiss is proficient but lacks originality, and this is also reflected upon by his personality. When Romeo meets Juliet, Rosaline instantly vanishes from his mine, and in fact Juliet is far more than just a replacement; Romeo’s love for her is far deeper, more authentic and unique than the clichéd puppy love for Rosaline. Romeo’s love matures in course of the play, from a shallow desire to intense, profound passion.
As mentioned above, Robert Browning is well known in the world of poetry due to his contribution of the dramatic monologue. According to the Britannica Encyclopedia, a dramatic monologue can be defined as “a poem written in the form of a speech of an individual character; it compresses into a single vivid scene a narrative sense of the speaker's history and psychological insight into his character”. Written in the first person, the dramatic monologue includes a listener, an acute focus on dramatics as well as the use of props, all of which are presented in a symbolic setting. In most cases this type of monologue creates a feeling of sympathy and a deep form of dramatic understanding within the reader towards the speaker. Browning incorporates all of these elements in an intriguing manner in his poetic masterpiece My Last Duchess.
Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken and he expresses his great love for a woman with whom he had a passionate romance. This classical poem addresses to people who have lost-loved ones and to passionate lovers. Memory and Reminiscence “Tonight I Can Write” is a poem about memories of a lost love and the pain they can cause. Throughout the poem the speaker recalls the details of a relationship that is now broken. He continually juxtaposes images of the passion he felt for the woman he loved with the loneliness he experiences in the present.
Shakespeare’s SONNET 130 William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 130 draws attention to the pattern of change and questioning spirit of the Renaissance by presenting a perception of love that challenges traditional conventions. This is a common trait of Shakespeare’s later sonnets. Rather than using Petrarchan concepts to present an idealised version of romantic love, Shakespeare deliberately opposes the traditional form. In doing so he casts a mature, more realistic outlook on relationships. The beloved in Sonnet 130 is described in an unappealing manner, and yet, because of his honest depiction of her the poet-speaker considers his love to be true.
Shakespeare does not conform to the “norm” of the sonneteers of his time. He describes his mistress in contrast with natural phenomena, although the tradition was to compare the two (Hale 1). Shakespeare’s use of specific wording is vital to the understanding of the poem. He uses such words as “far more, no such, and well I know” to help the reader understand the exactly what he means and how strongly he feels about his mistress. Line four of the poem talks about his mistress’ wiry hair, leading the reader to believe that her hair is not of good health (Hale 1).