As humans and individuals we are alone, completely separate from any other consciousness. We’re trapped in our own heads, and only our words and actions, mere symbols of our soul and the truth of ourselves, can communicate our existence to any other person. For better or for worse, we know that no symbol functions as a truly perfect representation, and because of this, the individual exists in solitude. But despite all this aloneness, in his “Letters to a Young Poet” Rilke would tell us that love has a purpose in our lives and can act as a positive force. These letters were written between Rilke and Franz Kappus over several years, and began when Kappus wrote to him seeking advice on his own poems. As put forth in these letters, Rainer Maria Rilke’s conception of love is radically individualistic, placing its central role as the advancement of the individual. The love he describes requires a deep understanding and development of oneself gained only through the profound acceptance of solitude, ambiguity, and struggle. To understand Rilke’s conception of love we must understand how he believes an …show more content…
Rilke, somewhat surprisingly, places an enormous value on love, even going so far as to describe it as the ultimate goal of life. He finds its benefits in its ability to act as an inducement to the self understanding and improvement he views as necessary: “Love is…a high inducement to the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world for himself for another’s sake, it is a great exacting claim upon him, something that chooses him out and calls him to vast things” (54). Though it may seem counterintuitive, love by no means robs us of our necessary solitude. We remain fundamentally separate and unknowable creations—love simply acting as a calling force to continue our understanding and
While Anna Williams views escaping the confines of marriage as a desirable thing, Charlotte Lennox’s greatest lament, as expressed by her poem “A Song,” is merely to have the freedom to love who she pleases. Although Charlotte Lennox has a more romantic view of men and love than Anna Williams, neither woman denies the need for companionship. Charlotte Lennox’s opinion towards love is expressed clearly in her piece “A Song.” The poem’s female speaker is experiencing unrequited love.
Love. Love is generous, boundless and is one of the greatest gifts one can obtain from God, however when in love anything can transpire. And that is exactly how the poets Mariam Waddington’s, “Thou Didst Say Me” and Alfred Tennyson’s, “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal” navigate their poems. Both offering conflicting sentiments toward love relations to the table and ultimately delivering a unique testimony about the subject of, love.
In The New Humanities Reader edited by Richard E. Miller and Kurt Spellmeyer. We read about Barbara Fredrickson the author of the book “Love 2.0” copy right (2013). Barbara Fredrickson is a psychologist who show in her research how our supreme emotion affects everything we Feel, Think, Do and become. Barbara also uses her research from her lab to describe her ideas about love. She defines love not as a romance or stable emotion between friends, partners and families, but as a micro-moment between all people even stranger (108). She went farther in her interpretation of love and how the existence of love can improve a person’s mental and physical health (107). Through reading
Robert Penn Warren's poem “True Love” express the power of love and attraction to cause an unrequited love to become a source of nostalgia, admiration and the idealization of the intended for the admirer. The narrator and admirer, reminisces on his childhood memories of the older girl, still idealizes her to the point of her being a mere object rather than a real person. Years after the boy’s memories, the narrator still holds shallow impressions of the girl’s reality though but has grown to have a slightly deeper view of her situation.
Part II: Explication The title of the poem “Love is Not All” asserts the impression that suggests the unimportant of love to its reader at first. However, the ending of the poem reveals the ironic truth that love is worthwhile. Millay’s intention is not to confuse readers by using a title that forcefully disrespects love. However, she projects the title of the poem to ascertain the grounds for her argument that love is important.
Love is heavily intertwined with being human. Indeed, everyone doubtlessly experiences some form of love in their life, be it towards objects or people. This love is organized into three types; eros, philos, and agape. Eros, likely the most common kind of love in western culture, denotes sexual desire, or lust. Philos covers love among friends, or love for the purpose to gain something. Agape, the rarest of all, encapsulates selfless love, or the willingness to die for another. All forms are present within the three works, Voltaire’s Candide, Cervantes’ Don Quixote, and in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, albeit in differing levels.
A common practice when faced with a difficult choice, self-examination, is the centerpiece of two popular poems: Gregory Corso’s Marriage and T. S. Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Both poems are dramatic monologues in which the speakers address the similar situations that they find themselves in. While the speaker of Eliot’s poem has a nervous and bashful approach in his attempts at romance, the hesitant postmodern speaker in Corso’s poem makes use of sarcasm to attack the institution of marriage. When these two monologues given by similar personas are analyzed together the result is a dialogue which discusses two distinguishing views on the ideas of romance and love.
Rilke, Rainer Maria. Letters to a Young Poet. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.
Perhaps Tolstoy's short story, “The Kreutzer Sonata”, truly captures one definite conception of love, albeit a very negative one. To understand more what is brought to light in this story, we need to take a look at it, more importantly at the character of Pozdnychev.
As any romantic will assert, love is by far the most powerful force known to human hearts and minds. This sentiment is espoused throughout history, almost to the point of cliché. Everyone has heard the optimistic statement, “love conquers all,” and The Beatles are certain, however idyllic it may be, that “all you need is love.” Humanity is convinced that love is unique within human emotion, unequalled in its power to both lift the spirit up in throws of ecstasy, and cast it down in utter despair.
The notion of love is nothing but a shadow that covers the truth of ones’ own struggles and the improbable triumph of love over isolation is nearly impossible in his eyes. By complicating his poem through the filter of the maid and the frame of traditional love poetry, Clare’s portrait of isolation and social death becomes even more moving, for it is just as obvious to the reader as it is to Clare that such an “eternity” is unlikely to be
In conclusion, Ovid tells great stories of love and loss. In the above four stories, his best work shows through in showing how no one is safe from love and how being rejected was dealt with. Ovid explores different types of love and different ways of dealing with rejection and loss and the different types of people who go through it. It was shown that no one is immune to love and that no one is immune to being rejected. Ovid also shows that
Love is arguably the most powerful emotion possessed by mankind; it is the impalpable bond that allows individuals to connect and understand one another. Pure love is directly related to divinity. Without love, happiness and prosperity become unreachable goals. An individual that possesses all the desired superficial objects in the world stands alone without the presence of love. For centuries love has been marveled by all that dare encounter it. Countless books and poems have been transcribed to explain the phenomenon of love, but love surpasses all intellectual explanations and discussions. Love is not a definition, but rather a thought, an idea. This idea, the idea of love, burns inside us all. Instinctually, every soul on Earth is
Although there are obstacles that people face in every relationship, love can undermine those adversities. Love is powerful because it lets me out of the darkness. It is shown through the simplest act of kindness. For this reason, the act of giving also demonstrates that someone cares, and the appreciation of the simple act fosters stronger relationships. Furthermore, love is facilitated in every social and cultural aspect of my life. In fact, my passion arises from the things and people I love. Love is important to my family because it gives us a sense of comfort and security. Since my family care for each other, we look out for our best interest. This is why my family is closely knit. However, love can also be found within my aspirations. Therefore, I have the motivation to achieve my career and life goals. Without love, I would have no motivation to live
Eavan Boland’s poem “Love” comes from her collection entitled In a Time of Violence. In the piece Boland both reflects on the history of her and her husband’s love and ties it in with the story of a hero who travels to hell. The poem’s form is stanzaic, broken into 7 stanzas with 38 lines. “Love” is rich with metaphor, simile, personification and imagery. The poem makes constant allusion to Greek Mythology, and the author’s story runs parallel to that of Odysseus from Homer’s “The Odyssey” . Boland is able to convey the journey loves take throughout the course of a relationship and how it is affected during difficult times.