Comparing Ways Poets Have Written About Love English Literature Essay free essay sample

The verse form I will discourse in this essay are: My Last Duchess and Porphyria s Lover as my primary comparings and The Passionate Shepherd and The Nymphs Reply to the Shepherd as my secondary verse form. Both of my primary verse forms have been written by Robert Browning. Robert Browning lived from 1812-1889 and he was married to Elizabeth Barrett, another good known poet. Browning s manner of composing reflects the epoch he lived in. Browning s dramatic soliloquies are verse forms in which the words non merely convey puting and action but besides reveal the talker s character. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love was written by Christopher Marlowe who lived from 1564-1593. Marlowe was from Canterbury and he went to analyze in Cambridge and he may hold even been involved in espionage. Marlowe had an interesting but unhappily really short life as a consequence of a suspected bash in a tap house. Some people think that he did non decease in the tap house but he went to populate in Europe, some people besides think that he may hold written some of Shakespeare s work as Marlowe was besides a good known dramatist at the clip. The Nymph s Reply to the Shepherd was written by Sir Walter Raleigh in response to Marlowe s The Passionate Shepherd to His Love . Sir Walter Raleigh was a close intimate of Queen Elizabeth I and his answer to Marlowe s verse form was demoing him being realistic about love and outlooks of love. In both poems a cardinal character refers to the slaying of their married woman or lover. In the verse form it is through their descriptions of this action that the characters are conveyed. In Porphyria s lover the adult males character and presence appears concealed in a province of oblivion until Porphyria arrives I listened with bosom tantrum to interrupt this gives an feeling that he is obsessional about Porphyria and has no control over his life and that the storyteller has strong emotions towards his love. It is Porphyria s presence that lights up his life. It is she who murmurs how she loved me in other words Porphyria appears to be the active spouse. It is Porphyria who is doing the picks. He sees himself when run intoing with Porphyria as silent and passive. When no voice replied she put my arm about her waist , which suggests that she is commanding his actions. It is besides relevant that we know this supporter as Porphyria s Lover he does non even hold his ain name. W hen he is certain that Porphyria worshipped him my bosom swelled and this makes him determined to take control and do her mine it is merely at this point he is able to be active, and this is when he strangles her. It is as if by making so he retrieves himself to experience like a adult male. It is merely after her decease that he can experience content. It is as if he is a character in a fairy narrative and has rescued Porphyria from an evil enchantment. By killing her he has saved her. He is certain that she would be glad it has its uttermost will he still sees this slaying as an action done for her her darling one want would be heard the reader is still unsure as to the talker s ain want, to kill his love or pin down her forever. In a sense he does non look to understand that he has murdered Porphyria. But sees that she has killed herself and he is passively accepting the state of affairs. The supporter s logical thinking makes sense to him, he appears at times exulting. He i s certain that he has power over this adult female as her lover to make up ones mind whether she lives or dies, as so does the duke in My last Duchess , nevertheless, whereas the lover in Porphyria s lover appears weak and wants to recover power the duke is in absolute control. It becomes clear merely in line 45 that the duke gave bids and killed his first married woman. The duke is talking to the minister plenipotentiary of the count who has come to set up the duke s following matrimony and the duke is anticipating a dowery. The fact that the duke is ready to acknowledge that he killed his first married woman because she was excessively nice confirms that the duke is confident that he is above the jurisprudence. It is chilling that the minister plenipotentiary is prepared to sell this immature miss to a liquidator. The duke says .the counts munificence/ is ample warrant that no merely pretension of mine for dowery will be disallowed . This barely disguises his greed and material istic grounds for get marrieding. He is unconvincing when he says that it is his just girl s ego that is his object . Worryingly this future married woman sounds as if she will fall in the other objects in his art gallery as an object . The duke wants for entire control and is happier uncovering a picture of his last married woman than her world. He makes the point that no 1 can open the drape but him and so he has power over the image. The emotion he feels seldom breaks through. He appears wholly cold. In contrast to Porphyria s lover who is unprompted, the duke appears to move intentionally and carefully. His choler surfaces as he describes his last duchess s reaction to an officious sap who dared to offer her a clump of cherries. The duke is outraged by his married woman and expects his hearer to hold. He is most pained that she smiled at retainers as if she ranked my gift of a nine-hundred twelvemonth old name with anyone s gift . From this comment we see that he sees his p osition as most of import. He has a really fixed thought of how he and his married woman should act ; he will non stoop and believes merely inquiring his married woman non to smile would be stooping . The duke is so pretentious that he feels uncomfortable in inquiring person to halt stooping He would prefer her dead. Both these verse forms manage to give a really strong sense of the characters of the adult females they have killed. Both adult females appear faultless. The trigger for Porphyria s lover to strangle Porphyria is when he realises that she loves him. Porphyria enters her lover s bungalow and makes it warm ; she attempts to do him comfy. She acts more like the adult male in the relationship, her hair is moist and she has been outside enduring the cold and wet, whereas he has been indoors waiting for her. The functions are reversed, it is she who murmurs how she loves him. In contrast the duchess appears feminine. As the duke criticizes this adult female, the reader is convinced of her comeliness, to easy impressed . It is as if the duke is falsifying linguistic communication as honest and good words earnest a bosom excessively shortly made sword lily are turned into bad. She is non a prig and does non value herself harmonizing to her name. Whilst Porphyria s lover believes his sla ying to be Porphyria s dearest want , the duke has no involvement in his duchess s want. The thought procedures of the duke and the lover are suggested in the verse form through punctuation. Punctuation creates interruptions and run on lines. In My Last Duchess the punctuation seldom agrees with the beat or rime. This makes the rime and beat less obvious. It sounds more like a address than verse though in fact he speaks in riming pairs and utilizing iambic pentameter. In line 25 for illustration sir, twas all one! My favor at her chests, / the dropping of the twenty-four hours light in the West, / the bow of cherries some interfering fool/ broke in the orchid for her. Here the punctuation varies and the interruptions are non predictable. So they interrupt the formal beat of the verse form. This makes it clear the emotion he seeking to mask through his formal address. The beat and rime in Porphyria s Lover is much more evident and the interruptions less frequent. As we read we are lulled by the beat which is besides iambic. It is as if we are sing the music construct up in a horror film and all of a sudden he says and strangled her the knock of the horror hits you, the rime is broken and the interruption in the line interrupts the beat. This confirms the talker s agitated province. Having killed her, the beat returns to its hypnotic iambic round, which contrasts with his hideous action. The horror of the actions of both supporters is made more convincing by the strong feelings given of the topographic point. In Porphyria s Lover the outside tears the elm tops down for malice . The conditions is cruelly destructive which reflects the lover s ain temper. The bungalow that he sits in rapidly warms up when Porphyria enters. Again the house reflects his ain temper. The Duke and the envoy sit in the Duke s gallery and expression at the art. He points in the beginning to a picture of his married woman and the terminal of the verse form in the same tone points at a sculpture of Neptune. This shows that he looks at his married woman as holding the same importance as his art. Though both the duke and the lover kill their lovers they do so for different grounds. The duke because he does non wish his married woman plenty, as he is Obs and has paranoia over his married woman, and the lover because he loves her excessively much. However both the duke and the lover appear mad. He loved her so much that he go haunted she s mine, mine mine which led him to go brainsick and from going loony he convinced himself that by killing her he was assisting her. Contrastingly, the duke had trouble in get bying with the attitude and personality of his married woman. The duke is really cold he gave commands he did nt even care about killing her he does non see her as homo. He says then all smilings stopped together and so he was satisfied. In The Passionate Shepherd to his Love , Christopher Marlowe instantly shows his stance on his place with his love, Come live with me . This shows merely how eager the shepherd is and so there is a intermission where he goes on to state, aˆÂ ¦and be my love . This is more of a soft tone and softens what has merely been said. In the following line there are two utilizations of initial rhyme, And we will all the pleasances proveaˆÂ ¦ , and the w s and p s add a persuasive definite feel to the poetry. In the last two lines of this stanza, Marlowe lists all the things the Nymph and the shepherd will make together, and by naming them, he is doing it look as though there is an astonishing assortment of landscape to bask. These countries he is naming are all dramatic, natural pleasances and have non been changed by adult male, nil is unreal. When it says, aˆÂ ¦or steepy mountain outputs . The shepherd is demoing that there is an excess sense of freedom and that to gether, the Nymph and himself will bask the natural beauties. The pastoral nature of this verse form shows the tradition of love and shepherd s. The verse form was really successful at the clip because many people related love and the countryside. The Nymph s Reply to Marlowe s verse form is instead flooring. She starts by altering what the shepherd has merely said to what she thinks is world. In the first line, If all the worldaˆÂ ¦ , the Nymph uses the word if as this shows her interior negative dubious feelings about what the shepherd has merely offered. The following line starting, And truth in every shepherd s lingua , shows that the Nymph is connoting that work forces lie and the shepherd is lying to her. She thinks that everything that the shepherd is stating is unreal and bogus and she is seeking to do him see sense. The immature lady speaks sardonically about pretty pleasances , which are words, which she has taken from the shepherd s verse form, but has twis ted them. This is meant to be sarcastic, but without being excessively acrimonious, nevertheless, she is stating it with a sense of sorrow that it is non true. I think that the immature lady would truly wish to populate like that. Besides in pretty pleasances there is an initial rhyme of the p as this emphasises her negative temper by reiterating the initial rhyme that Marlowe used. Raleigh so uses, might me travel , and this is once more based on what the shepherd said. May move and may thee moveaˆÂ ¦ , here there is besides a instance of initial rhyme but with a negative feel from the Nymph, underscoring her uncertainty and sorrow. At the terminal of this line there is an enjambement, as the poet wants there to be a streamlined consequence, to underscore the procedure of traveling in with the shepherd. This highlights the irony and the fact that she will non be populating with him. Raleigh so finishes with, aˆÂ ¦and be my love , as this mimics the beginning of t he shepherd s verse form and underscores that the Nymph is stating she will non be his love. These verse forms are about love but deviant or pervert the thought that love is good. Porphyria s lover s obsessional love where he wants to sublimate his love by taking her life gives a sense that love is destructive instead than good. The duke does non look capable of love and does non anticipate love but because his married woman is capable of loving him and the remainder of the universe he feels bitterness. The Passionate Shepherd to his Love shows true but idealistic love nevertheless the Nymph s Reply quashes the love by being a realist and by stating that the love the shepherd wants is non possible.