What Is The Mood Of The Poem Idea 20 By Michael Drayton

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“Idea 20: An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still”, is a poem by Michael Drayton, a poet from the 1800s. The older English language is used throughout and is a sonnet that speaks of his overpowering and crippling love for someone. The poem uses devices such as a longing and tortured tone, being a romantic sonnet and a lyric poem. Drayton uses the voice of the lyric poem, which expresses love filled and tortured emotions of himself and uses first person pronouns. He uses this frequently by writing “In me it speaks, whether I sleep or wake; And when by means to drive it out I try, With greater torments then it me doth take, And tortures me in most extremity” (lines 5-8). He uses “me”, “I” and “your”, pronouns directed at himself. The emotion that takes place is tortured love. The love leaves him in anguish and doesn’t seem to leave him be. The form of the lyric poem really conveys his passionate emotions and helps the reader to understand how upset and stressed he is by this love because it is so personal. …show more content…

Sonnets are romantic, fourteen line poems. Drayton’s poem is filled with love and while it is not necessarily a positive love, it is speaking of the anguish caused by this love. The romance is very clear throughout almost every line, only a few being “An evil spirit, your beauty, haunts me still, Wherewith, alas, I have been long possess'd, Which ceaseth not to tempt me to each ill, Nor gives me once but one poor minute's rest” (lines 1-4). He goes as far as to call the person’s beauty an evil spirit, which is a metaphor to stress how the beauty is taking over him that it’s become evil and unwanted. He has been possessed by this love and it’s driving him crazy by not giving him a moments rest. The romance is extremely overpowering in this sonnet and helps the reader to understand the love in few

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