In order to emphasise Larkin’s outlooks onto time and it’s passing, one can highlight the similarities and differences between Larkin and Abse’s poetry. In ‘Love Songs In Age’, Larkin illustrates the view that time and it’s passing merely leads to many disappointments. The enjambment he uses amongst all three stanzas, “and stood/relearning” in the first and second and “more/the glare” between the second and third; this implies the suggestion that love cannot stop the passing of time and the instances that happen within it, for example the death of the woman’s husband. During the first stanza, Larkin uses imagery to create a memoir of the music sheets that the woman has found, “one marked in circles”, “and coloured”, suggesting that the joy of life, love and happiness isn’t appreciated until age shows what one has missed during their youth. We can then imply from this suggestion that Larkin feels time is only appreciated during the older years of one’s life.
Prior to this her life was shown as dark and deathly through the personification of the “mystic shape” that moves behind her. Love is shown as a saviour and a brilliant force that can transcend and give life to her darkest days. Barrett Browning’s sonnets were set in the wake of the Romantics, making the tone of the poems gloomy and filled with sorrow as well as the feelings of the force and intensity of
They both explore the theme of love or rather painful love. the poet revels the link between the two poems’s through a verity of techniques which is done very effectively but also shows the difference between the obsessive love in “Havisham” and the possessive love of “Valentine”. The pain of love is evident from the beginning in both poems. “Carol Ann Duffy” uses the tone in the first couple of stanzas to show the unorthodox nature of the love. “Not a day since then I haven’t whished him dead”-Havisham This is very effective as the aggressive tone shows “Havisham” has been rejected and her love is causing her pain.
I’m intrigued by this poem’s subject matter but annoyed by the poet’s incessant use of fragments. This eight-stanza poem begins with its briefest verse paragraph, a single sentence about the speaker’s father. The repetition of monosyllabic words in the second line, coupled with author’s use of alliteration, creates a sing-song rhythm that establishes a happy tone which the rest of the poem adheres to. Though the poem is framed by a somewhat negative image—that of the childhood Shihab failing in a spelling bee and apparently obsessing over it for the rest of her life—this work is decidedly celebratory. One can imagine the poet given her father credit for her ability as a writer, as “star[ing],” or close examination, is a requisite skill for any good scribe.
Each poem I have chosen reflects aspects of contemplation, sadness or regret. Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" examines feelings of regret and choices in time, Sir Walter Raleigh's "Life" is a poem of contemplation; of existence and time before its end. Finally, John Milton's "Of Time", a typically dramatic piece by the 16th century master of 'epic' poetry. "Of Time" is written of the bittersweet relationship between mortal lives and the aching shortness of said lives. The chosen image of an hourglass is a typical, although, undeniably apt choice of symbolism wherever time is involved.
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.
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.
Death is the main theme of both sonnets but the tone may differ a little. The tone of Sonnet 71 is a sad but at the same time concern and apologetic, in the other hand the tone of Sonnet 73 is only sad. In both poems the writers are embracing death and are trying to say goodbye to their love ones. In Sonnet 71 we see it more accurately “Nay, if you read this line, remember not the hand that writ it; for I love you so that I in your sweet thoughts would be forgot if thinking on me then should make you woe”; as well we see how the tone is because even though he is sad he is going to die he is more concern about his beloved, he doesn’t want her to suffer when he is gone “Lest the wise world should look into your moan, And mock you with me after I am gone..” In Sonnet 73 we may think the writer is sad and is only trying to say goodbye, but in lines 13 and 14 _“ This is thou perceives, which makes thy love more strong. To love that well which _thou must leave ere long” there is a twist in which we may observe he is talking to his beloved and how their love is going to live forever.
She dwelt among the Untrodden ways William Wordsworth was a Romantic poet who believed that poetry was an overflow of feelings and emotion according to what he wrote in the Preface to Lyrical Ballads. His poem "She Dwelt in Untrodden Ways," part of the grouping called the Lucy poems, certainly shows the reader a wealth of emotions. The Lucy poems "variously ordered in different editions tell...of an uneasy courtship, blissful domestic life, and abrupt and devastating loss" (Jackson). According to most, the Lucy poems are seen as a "lyrical sequence," according to Mark Jones, but that interpretation may be much too simple. However, in any event, the power of Wordsworth's poetry is undeniable and the feelings that he brings forth are remarkable.
The poem, “Oh how I hate you, let me count the ways” is a satire of the more famous poem “How do I love thee, let me count the ways” written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning. The stories are complete opposites. Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes someone who is in love. Her poem expresses joy and a hopeful future. The diction and style of writing she uses is flowery, verbose, and so over the top that it is borderline sappy when placed in stark contrast with Sharpless’ poem.