John Donne 's A Valediction : Forbidding Mourning And Katherine Philips 's Mrs. B.a. At Parting

Poetry written in the sixteenth century is not very different from modern-day poetry. Poets seem to continue to craft work based upon love and heartbreak more than any other topic. In Georgia Giscoigne’s 1573 poem “For That He Looked Not upon Her”, the speaker comes off as distraught over a girl, but actually has a more conflicting attitude towards her. The speaker feels desire towards this girl, but his desirer comes off as ambivalent at times. He shows indecisiveness about his feelings towards her, and at times comes off as regretful towards his past with her. Gascoigne presents a desiring, ambivalent, yet regretful attitude through his choice of title, diction, and use of metaphors.

Moreover, this relationship forms to satisfy the couple’s shared desire and to nullify the “threat of ultimate dreariness [which] seems to hang over even the happiest moments” (896).

“Love Poem” by John Frederick Nims is an excellent of example of an author using many types of literary terms to emphasize his theme of a love that is imperfect yet filled with acceptance. In, this poem Nims uses assonance, metaphor, and imagery to support his theme of “Imperfect, yet realistic love”.

Love tends to be the topic of many poetic literary works, whether it be the joys that come with it or the pains suffered because of it, but what can be made of the love that results in both? In the poem, “For He Looked Not upon Her,” George Gascoigne already makes that message clear through his title: sometimes, there is reason not to desire what we can not help but long for. When his audience reads the work, they are meant to discover that reason behind why “He” would not look upon “Her”. Through the speaker’s form, diction, and imagery that he utilizes in the poem, it becomes clear that his tone towards love is wary, yet also conflictingly longing.

It is certainly implied that both of these poems are concerned with the ideal of true love, but we have seen that they differ quite dramatically with the authors' mindset and themes which they are attempting to portray. Both poems revolve around the consistency of love, whether existent or not, though their discrepancies are valid, it is these discrepancies, which provide readers with the conception and comprehension of what true love really is.

Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Sonnet IV” follows many of the conventions of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet. It follows the traditional rhyming scheme and octet, sestet structure. However it challenges the conventions of the typical subject of the Italian sonnet, unrequited love. In the octet at the beginning of the poem Millay uses images that give a sense of transience and in the ending sestet of the sonnet she contrasts the sense of impermanence given earlier with the idea that the speaker cannot forget the smiles and words of their ex-lover. This contrast between permanence and transience illustrates Millay’s interest in a fugacious relationship with everlasting memories. After further analysis of Millay’s highly structured rhyming scheme which puts emphasis on the last words of each line. She uses these words to further express her interest in exploring impermanent relationships by using words that are associated with an end or death.

These allusions help paint the image of a time of youthful, naive love which the speaker looks back fondly upon. In contrast, any hint of affection is absent from “Killing The Love” and replaced with hateful regret. The speaker describes moments that were significant to her in the past such as “the music [they] thought so special” and “the Camp [they] directed” and proceeds to tell how she is “murdering” all these memories (Sexton, lines 2, 15). Unlike in “Photograph” where the speaker reconciles with memories that may now be associated with pain, the speaker in “Killing the Love” wallows in regret in an attempt to bury any inkling of past relations. The second differentiating factor is seen from the perspectives from which the poems address the mistakes made by the previous partners.

Edna Millay, in her sonnet, “What Lips,” describes her solitude after spending her life searching for love by having romances with several men. Firstly, Millay asks a rhetorical question: “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” to explain that she has forgotten her past lovers and the reasons they were together; secondly, to provide a visual image of the speaker’s lonely, quiet, and empty state caused by not finding love, Millay states that “the rain / Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh”; thirdly, Millay uses an oxymoron, “quiet pain,” to explain that although the speaker does not remember her past lovers, the hurt from not finding love still lingers in her; fourthly, Millay provides the image of a “lonely tree” as another

Exploring Different Types of Love in Three Poems: A Woman to Her Lover, When We Two Parted and First Love

The poem, “For That He Looked Not upon Her” by George Gascoigne exemplifies how the speaker suffered from love, something that many people believe one should feel positive about. The title delivers a despairing tone by allowing the audience to believe that the speaker can no longer look the woman he loved in the eye. Conflicting with the despairing tone, the speaker develops a complex attitude with the use of structure, metaphors, diction, and desire.

When deconstructing the text ‘W;t’, by Margaret Edson, a comparative study of the poetry of John Donne is necessary for a better conceptual understanding of the values and ideas presented in Edson’s ‘W;t’. Through this comparative study, the audience is able to develop an extended understanding of the ideas surrounding death. This is achieved through the use of the semi-colon in the dramas title, ‘W;t’. Edson also uses juxtapositions and the literary device, wit, to shape and

The poets, Gwen Harwood, Geoff Goodfellow and Judith Wright, all explore the idea of “individuals and those they love” using both imagery and form. Through female perspectives, each poet presents how women can feel conflicted, desiring a fulfilling relationship without the inevitable pain and suffering.

“A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning,” by John Donne explores love through the ideas of assurance and separation. Donne uses vivid imagery to impart his moral themes on his audience. A truer, more refined love, Donne explains comes from a connection at the mind, the joining of two souls as one. Physical presence is irrelevant if a true marriage of the minds has occurred, joining a pair of lovers’ souls eternally.

For many of us who are in a relationship either by marriage or simply as mates can relate to the feelings they are exhibited within and around one when they are with or simply thinking about our mates. This feeling of security and belonging tends to increase our love towards each other, especially during times of pain and death. We begin to see the world of insecurity and being alone, a world of being abandoned and feeling useless. There are those who don’t posses a “soul mate';, and nonetheless they too feel an increase of love; the love of having a mate of being wanted and loved, and the feeling of not being alone.

The poem, ‘The Ecstasy” is one of the more well-known works written by John Donne. In the poem, Donne seems to agree with the philosophy that true love can only be available on a spiritual level and explains what the process is to get there. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how the poem expresses the unique ideas of love and how two people make connections through different pathways, aside from just the physical bonds.