Poetry Coursework Essay

Love poems can be traced back many years, love is typically thought of as lust, commitment and sacrifice all rolled into one and here is a quote from Abraham Crowley on love â€Å"A mighty pain to love it is, and ’tis a pain that pain to miss; but of all the pains, the greatest pain is to love, but love in vain.† Love poems tend to be thought of as very conventional. Traditionally, i would expect a love poem to have comparisons, comparing their loved one to angels or goddesses and to build a image in the readers mind that their love was pure and faultless, they would also include in the poem comparisons between their loved one and goddesses or angels and would describe their facial features to something so pure and faultless. However, i have found that some unconventional love poems describe their loved ones to something ugly or dark, some may compare their loved ones to fleas and insects but yet they say that their love is pure and unbreakable. In From Fidessa written by Bartholomew Griffin which was a petrarchan sonnet written in 1596, Bartholomew Griffin talks about his lady obsessively as he uses the metaphor ‘My lady’s hair is threads of beaten gold’ which gives the reader the image that she has the looks of a goddess which fits in with the conventional images of love. It also fits in with how women were thought of in this time period as they were mainly depicted as goddesses or angels by many men, I think this is obsessive love because its like he keeps ranting on about how beautiful she is and how she is faultless in appearance he even goes as far as to say ‘Her feet, fair thetis praiseth evermore.’ This shows the kind of extent he goes to, describing her feet which shows just how obsessive his love is for this women, he says her feet, should be praised ever more this showed how deep and pure his love is, as he has even fallen head over heels with her feet which is a unsignificant part of the body to find appeasing. This is a conventional sonnet because he makes the comparisons between his lady and pure objects such as ‘beaten gold’ which is expected in a conventional sonnet. In sonnet 18 famously written by William Shakespeare and published in 1592, this sonnet was the 18th in 154 and arguably one of the better known of his sonnets as it is shrouded by mystery by the fact that he is writing a love sonnet to a man while normally love sonnets are traditionally made for women and homosexual relationships were frowned upon in those times as they were thought as ‘not natural’, Shakespeare says this man is more ever-lasting and beautiful then natures beauty, as he says ‘Shall I compare thee to a summers day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate’. This sonnet once again displays obsessive love because Shakespeare compares this man to natures finest beauty, a summer day but yet says that he simply cant for he is far better then a summer day which shows just how in love and obsessed he is with this man. This sonnet is a conventional poem depicting a type of unconventional type of love because although it has all the characteristics of a conventional poem, however it is based on a unconventional love between a man and man where as that type of love is normally shown between a man and a woman and in those times, other types of love relationships were frowned upon which make this type of love unconventional in my opinion . In From Canzoniere written by Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) in 1484 is a conventional Petrarch sonnet where he shows the reader how strong and demanding his love is as he says ‘Could my own soul from its own self beguile’ he says that his love is so strong for this women that he feels that his soul and his body could be parted which shows just how strong he feels for this women and gives the reader a strong image of exactly how obsessive this man’s love is for this women as he then goes on to say ‘and my sad harp can sound but notes of pain’, where he basically tells the reader that although he loves this women he isn’t loved back and that all that happen is that his love turns to pain as he knows he isn’t loved back and desperately just wants to be loved by this women. This is a conventional poem as he simply is ‘head over heels’ for this woman and makes comparisons to angels when he says ‘ and the soft lightning of the angelic smile’. â€Å"Soft lightning†is a clichà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ because as we know lightning is never soft it simply thunders and is rough so i believe this quote is hiding behind its true meaning because the poet says that although her smile is angelic however when angered or bad tempered the â€Å"soft† lightning within her smile begins to show and he seems not to want to upset his beloved one so he hides his true meaning within a sentence full of praise. However, in The Flea written by John Donne in 1630 it is a unconventional poem as he uses unusual things to describe his love for his beloved and shows a erotic type of love as he says ‘Mark but this flea and mark in this’ which tell us he is asking her to notice the flea and notice what he is about to state but then he goes on to say ‘and pampered swells with one blood made of two, and this, alas is more then we would do.’ He suggests that the flea connects them more then she allows as the flea has bit them both and both their blood has fused into one, he displays erotic love because all he wants to do with this woman is break the barrier between them and have sex with her, by comparing their relationship to a flea shows just how lowly he regards their relationship as he badly wants to have sex with her but yet she keeps denying him and just shows exactly how unconvertible this poem is as it goes against all the rules of a conventional poem by making comparisons between a flea and love. Also in To His Coy Mistress written by Andrew Marvell in 1652, Andrew Marvell also doesn’t follow the conventional way of a poem as he describes her shyness to go to bed with him as a devastating world story as he says ‘Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness lady were no crime’ he says that he would wait for all the time in the world has he the time and says that if so then her shyness would be no crime, which shows that he is longing to have sex with her and he goes on to say that he would wait tell ‘the conversion of the Jews’ but not all Jews would convert so he is saying that he would wait forever if he had the time but he nobody truly has all the time in the world. This is erotic love as he looks solely for pleasure although he shows his love for her he simply just wants to have sex with her and this poem is unconventional because in my opinion he doesn’t follow the conventional rules and praise her looks and compare her to angels and goddesses, he simply says that he cant wait any longer although he loves her forever. In Sonnet 130 written by William Shakespeare in 1592, this unconventional Shakespearean sonnet has William Shakespeare makes comparisons to crude and beastly things rather then things of any beauty or angelic resemblance as he starts off his sonnet by saying ‘ My Mistress eyes are nothing like the sun’ he gives out the image to the reader that her eyes are dark and have no light within them, he then goes on to say ‘If snow be white, why then her breast are dun’ this specific quote famously gives the impression that his mistress could be black as he says the word dun which meant tanned or mud – colored, in those time inter – racial relationships were frowned upon as black people were seen as second class citizens, he also adds ‘ the breath that from my mistress reeks’ the word â€Å"reeks† empathizes the point of her breath being unbearable and the poem generally shows that Shakespeare wants people to see how love really is t hat it cant be perfect as many say it is and that every person has their faults and no matter what is said love is never perfect, this is my interpretation on what Shakespeare trys to show us in this sonnet. Shakespeare also in his poem The Dark Lady he also describes his lover with hair as â€Å"wirey† which shows once again that Shakespeare doesn’t like to â€Å"sugar coat† anything he simply write exactly what he sees. In conclusion, I believe that Sonnet 130 written by William Shakespeare portrays the most effective expression of love because although its not what you expect from a love sonnet he portrays the solid truth with no sugar coating and no silver white lining to hide behind, as although it may seem as he simply is just having a rant about his mistress maybe because she has refused to go on with it a person may say but to me Shakespeare is trying to show the reader exactly what love is about, love is about putting up with the persons faults recognising them and finding a way past them and yet having a relationship together rather then letting people believe that love is about roses, heaven and everything becomes perfect, Shakespeare gives his opinion with no half-hearted approach.