The Themes of Love and Loss in My Last Duchess, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, When we Two Parted, and Villegiature

The Themes of Love and Loss in My Last Duchess, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, When we Two Parted, and Villegiature

Works Cited Missing

The poems, 'My Last Duchess', 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' and 'When We

Two Parted' and 'Villegiature' by Robert Browning (1812-1889), John

Keats (1795-1821), Lord Byron (1788-1824) and Edith Nesbit (1858-1924)

respectively, have all been written in the nineteenth century. All

these poems deal with the different aspects of love and the different

attitudes of lovers towards their beloved, after parting or during

times away from each other (Villegiature).

Browning's 'My Last Duchess' shows the possessive and dominant type of

love where the Duke, who is speaking throughout the poem, looks upon

his wife as an object and treats her in the same way. Though this poem

has been written in 1842, the action takes place in the Middle Ages

and the inferiority associated with women in those times has been

clearly brought out. In the first line of the poem itself the Duke

says, "That's my last Duchess painted on the wall," conveying his

'object-like' treatment of her. Later in the monologue he says "But to

myself they turned (since none puts by/ The curtain I have drawn for

you, but I)" which again proves the previous point. Moreover, the fact

that the poem starts with "my" and ends with "me" in itself speaks for

the overbearing and possessive personality of the Duke. This

controlling aspect of love is shown in Keats's ballad as well, where

the knight says, "They cried-'La Belle Dame sans Merci/Hath thee in

thrall!'" This woman, who has power over all the "pale kings and

princes too/Pale warriors," easily dominates over the...

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...n emotion, jealousy and arrogance, so much so that it actually

leads one to murder! In my opinion, the poem that best expresses the

theme of 'love and loss' is Byron's 'When We Two Parted' as it

discusses with the greatest intensity, the emotions felt by the poet

after parting from his beloved. It is also written with a tone of

sincerity, which is conveyed by the exquisitely lyrical quality of the

words. Even though the selfish nature of the poet has been conveyed, I

cannot help but sympathise with him, unlike in 'My Last Duchess',

where the reader automatically disagrees with the Duke. It is a sad,

touching poem and the pain that goes alongside with the sense of

elation in love has been expressed in such a way that it tugs on the

reader's heartstrings and leaves one thinking about the poem, even

long after reading it.