Attitudes Towards Love in Pre-1900 and 1990's Poetry

Attitudes Towards Love in Pre-1900 and 1990's Poetry

“The Despairing Lover” written by William Walsh was written pre 1900

whilst the second poem “I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine” by Liz

Lockhead was written in the 1990’s. These poems are almost a century

apart. Attitude towards love changes over time and these poems

represent this. I Wouldn’t Thank you for a Valentine is about how

people think about Valentine’s Day in the 1990’s, while The Despairing

Lover is showing what people think and how important they see love in

the 1990’s.

In “The Despairing Lover” William Walsh sets out the poem like a story

with a beginning a middle and an end. This narrative structure of the

poem gives the poem three clear stages this making the poem clearer to

the reader and enables the poets written words to portray his ideas

with the poem. In the first stanza William Walsh is seen to be in

‘anguish’ over his loss of his lover. However in the second stanza his

mood swings to being just unhappy to suicidal, “it’s torment

projecting and sadly reflecting’. This also shows how the poet William

Walsh’s mind is working. In the third stanza, the poet realizes he

might get ‘a new love.’ William Walsh realises his loss and believes

he can find someone else. The words used in the despairing lover shows

Walsh emotions, for example the use of the word “anguish” instead of

angry is used because it is more dramatic. After reading the first two

stanza’s the reader is almost positive that the poet is going to

commit suicide and is just leading up to a big climax where he jumps.

However there is an unexpected twist where the poet just calms down

and thinks he can find love again. This shows the poet’s structure of

the poem and how ...

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...ion and

repetition. Another comparison between the two poems is we are both

hearing the viewpoint from the poet not from anybody else. Both the

poems also have a story behind them. I wouldn’t thank you for a

valentine has a hidden story and that is about something bad happening

to her on valentines day. While the despairing lover story is about

the poet coping with the break up from his lover. On the other hand

their are also many differences between the two poems. There structure

is different while the despairing lover is set out like a story with a

begging a middle and an end. I wouldn’t thank you for a valentine

structure is set out like a list. Another difference is that the

despairing lover has rhyming couplets while the second poem doesn’t. A

final difference between the two poems is the both have different

opinions on love and what love is like.