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Representation of love in poetry
Representation of love in poetry
Representation of love in poetry
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I Stand in Awe
I Stand in Awe.
Love can mean different things according to circumstances, the objects of affection, and the person experiencing the feeling. Correspondingly, many things can characterize love as well. Yet, one of the most common 'syndromes' is admiration, in other words, awe. Two poets George Gordon and Percy Bysshe Shelly describe such reverence in their poems "She Walks in Beauty" and "To a Skylark". In both of these poems the characters experience this felling. One experiences it towards a woman, another, towards a skylark. Even though the relationships between the characters and the objects of their affections are fundamentally different, the admiration that they feel is somewhat similar.
In "She Walks in Beauty" the character describes a woman. He is so taken by her beauty, that it is not even her physical appearance that captures him; it is her mere presence. In his description of her, the author draws comparisons and descriptions to this woman's beauty from everywhere in nature. In the first stanza of the poem he gives her a kind of a mystical and dream like quality by comparing her to the night. The description of the eyes and the face of this phantom of the night is breathtaking, yet, somehow disturbing. "And all that's best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and her eyes", a face that belong to a saint and a sinner at the same time is not meant to be seen by the human eyes (Byron, lines 3-4).
The following two stanzas deal with this woman's beauty as well, but mostly they discuss her emotional being. To the author she appears calm, at peace with herself, pure and innocent in her affections. It is as though this woman is a child inside, uncomplicated and not hardened by the harsh realities of life. "A mind at peace with all below, / A heart whose love is innocent!" (Byron, lines 17-18). The line about her mind being at peace with all below can suggest one of two things. Either the author is trying to give her an air like quality, someone very light and gracious. Or, that she is above the rest of the human race in a sense that she is not concerned with earthly problems, and therefore is not bothered by them at all; since her spirituality is far more precious and she posses a true understanding of the universe.
middle of paper ... ... “Lord Byron was with a lady” “huh”. She also shows her interest in fashionable things such as waltzes, which are a sign of maturity and that she is growing into a woman.
...David. “He still had the look in his eye, the pretty look. Maybe he really could see past her ugly face. Maybe what was inside her did matter to him more than anything else.” (279) By developing this relationship with David, it not only made Tally extremely happy; but she is able to understand the true meaning of what it is to be beautiful.
In the second stanza, Piercy describes the girl as healthy, intelligent, and strong (7-8). Yet these positive equalities alone, could not keep people from criticizing her, so the girl feels inferior. “She went to and fro apologizing,” which demonstrates her collapse of confidence with the people she is surrounded with, who kept putting her down (10). She gives in to the hurtful things people say about her: “Everyone [kept] seeing a fat nose on thick legs” (11). The girl thus lets people push her in the direction of society’s standard of beauty, instead of affirming her own unique beauty.
This description creates a conflicting idea of her, on one hand there is this fascinating, beautiful and innocent woman, yet on the other hand there is this figure with gothic qualities and frightening “wild” eyes referring to nature. This is comparable to Catherine, “A wild, wick slip she was—but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and the lightest foot in the parish.” (Chapter V, page42)
The poem begins with the author describing this perfect woman. As she goes on to say in line one, "At twenty she was brilliant and adored." The soft choice of words Kay choose create an instant connection between the reader and the woman. We are instantly engrossed in this woman, and sure enough adore her as well. The poem continues to describe her social status. From "Phi Beta Kappa" in line three and "men whose interest was their sole reward" in line four, we are instantly drawn with an image of this girl. We can conclude that this woman is young, successful, beautiful woman that is popular amongst everybody. She is the apple of everyone's desire. The author creates this girl to be that of one of the most intelligent, attractive girls the author (as well as the reader) has ever seen. As the reader, we can tell that she is from a very affluent background. This is implied in the lines "She learned the cultured jargon of those bred To antique crystal and authentic pearls." From the almost archaic setting to the famous people mentioned, the time period this takes place can be seen as around the early 1900's. In the line "And when she might have thought, conversed instead" is ...
While Lord Byron's poem enhances the beauty of love, Keats' does the opposite by showing the detriments of love. In “She Walks in Beauty,” the speaker asides about a beautiful angel with “a heart whose love is innocent” (3, 6). The first two lines in the first stanza portray a defining image:
"Her Kind" is a great poem for all women to read because even though society has changed in a better way towards women, a lot of times women are still characterized to be an "ideal" imagine. I simply loved this poem as a woman myself, because it shows how every woman should be confident in herself. A woman should not allow others opinions get to her but instead she should see herself as a special
When a comparison is made between There is a Garden in Her Face by Thomas Campion and Sonnet 130 by William Shakespeare, the difference between lustful adoration and true love becomes evident. Both poems involve descriptions of a beloved lady seen through the eyes of the speaker, but the speaker in Campion's poem discusses the woman's beautiful perfections, while the speaker in Shakespeare's poem shows that it is the woman's faults which make her beautiful.
The concept of love has long been the preferred topic of conversation among prominent male poets. Towards the closing of the sixteenth century, however, the emerging of the female poet took place. With the introduction of Queen Elizabeth, an initial path was now cleared for future women poets to share their views on the acclaimed topic of love. Due to this clashing of ideas, the conflicting views of two exceedingly different sexes could manifest itself. Who better to discuss the topic of love then Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who expresses her ideas with intelligence comparable to the best male poets, and Emerson, world renowned for his poignant opinions? In accordance with the long history of conflict between males and females, both Emerson’s "Give All to Love" and Browning’s "Sonnet 43" convey the pleasure love brings, but while Emerson’s poem urges the retention of individualism in a relationship, Browning pleads for a complete surrender to love.
Relationships between two people can have a strong bond and through poetry can have an everlasting life. The relationship can be between a mother and a child, a man and a woman, or of one person reaching out to their love. No matter what kind of relationship there is, the bond between the two people is shown through literary devices to enhance the romantic impression upon the reader. Through Dudley Randall’s “Ballad of Birmingham,” Ben Jonson’s “To Celia,” and William Shakespeare’s “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” relationships are viewed as a powerful bond, an everlasting love, and even a romantic hymn.
As stated by ‘The Duchess’, Margaret Wolfe Hungerford’s famous quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” As a result, beauty can describe as an inspiring view present in everything that can be seen. To begin, beauty can be viewed in a building as large and extravagant as the white house to the small hometown market or even in the sight of a single flower to a field filled with a million flowers. Also, beauty can be seen in the sunrise over the peaks of the mountains and also in the sunset glowing across a calm lake surrounded by the bright colors of the fall trees. Furthermore, people have physical beauty, which can be found in a person’s features, figure, or complexion. In the poem “Beauty & Dress” by Robert Herrick he explains the beauty he sees in his wife. Herrick states,
In the third stanza, he is telling her that there is no worth in hiding her beauty; "Small is the worth Of beauty from the light retired." He wants her to step out into the light and allow herself to be desired without feeling embarrassed; "Bid her come forth, Suffer herself to be desired, And not blush so to be admired." He wants her to feel proud that she is admired and "not blush."
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
In Elizabeth Browning’s poem ‘Sonnet 43’, Browning explores the concept of love through her sonnet in a first person narrative, revealing the intense love she feels for her beloved, a love which she does not posses in a materialistic manner, rather she takes it as a eternal feeling, which she values dearly, through listing the different ways she loves her beloved.
The two topics, the sublime and the beautiful are very common in romantic poetry and novels. According to Edmund Burke’s essay, On the Sublime and the Beautiful, He explains the opposition of beauty and of sublimity by a physiological theory. Burke made the opposition of pleasure and pain the source of the two aesthetic categories, deriving beauty from pleasure and sublimity from pain. Edmund Burke describes sublime objects as “vast in their dimensions” and beautiful objects as “small and simple objects.” Edmund Burke goes into further detail describing the sublime and the beautiful in his novel. He describes the sublime as the strongest emotion, which the mind is capable of feeling and the beautiful as something little, humble and innocent. Authors such as Marry Shelly, William Wordsworth and Percy Shelly wrote various works infusing the elements of the sublime and the beautiful into their novels or poems. They took Edmund Burke’s explanation of the sublime and the beautiful and created works based upon his descriptions of the sublime and the beautiful.