Samuel Butler - She Was Too Kind

1157 Words5 Pages
Tragic love life of Samuel There are many types of literary works, such as plays, books, soliloquy and even poetry. Various poets such as Emily Dickson, Edgar Allan Poe, and even William Shakespeare have used literary devices such as similes, personification and many more to portray the message and the theme of the literary piece. Seventeenth century poet named Samuel Butler has written many different poem, though he is mostly known for writing mocking and satirical poems in his Hudibras, which were based on the English Protestants. The poem “She was too kind” was written in 1901 after Ms. Eliza Savage’s Death which portrays the feeling of regret and how he ill – treated her. Literary criticism theories such as Marxism, feminism, new historicist and many more, helps the reader to interpret and understand the text. New Historic theory is used to look at the history of the poet and the critic itself to understand the meaning behind the poem. Tragic love is the theme of the poem, and it shows the reader that love was not fulfilled between the two people. One did not accept the love of another. One can consider that “She was too kind” is the greatest poem ever because when one understand the history of the poem between the poet and Eliza, it can be determined that the poet used imagery, repetition and alliteration to convey the tragic love between Miss Savage and the poet himself. New Historicist theory developed by Stephen Greenblatt is another tool that can be used to interpret what the poem is about. The poet’s history and the critic’s history is intertwined as it is about Samuel’s love life. The poet was married to a woman named Ms. Morgan Herbert, who was a widow. When Samuel returned to Britain from his trip to New Zealand, he met Eliza Savage in person. Even when he was in New Zealand, he used to submit the chapters to her for approval. A year or two later,
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