Early Modern Poetry - Essay Example

? Early Modern Poetry, Comparative Analysis The poem “Against love” (Famous poets and poems) was written by Katherine Philips in the 1600’s (luminarium). She was born to a merchant from London and was an educated woman. Katherine was of a young age when her father died and her mother took a new husband a few years later. Katherine’s stepfather was to be the one who married her to James Philips, with whom he was related. There is some speculation as to the age difference between the husband and wife but some hold that the age difference was well over thirty years, at least. Hers was an arranged marriage that may well have been the reason behind her ideas of love which can be seen in the poems that she has penned. Katherine Philips works were more or less centered on the Society of Friendship where she befriended women who appear a number of times in her works (Carpenter, 2003). According to her writings there seems to be a suggestion by Philips that the love that was between the women was a form of love that was free from corruption and was as pure a form of love that could be attainted. There have been numerous poems that have been written by Katherine Philips about her relationships with women earned a lot of distaste however modern feminists have praised her for the manner in which she has portrayed women. Mary Wroth was born to the first Earl of Leicester, Sir Robert Sidney in 1587. Wroth had a number of writers in her family who may have had an impact on her writing (Louisiana State University Press). Mary was married off to Sir Robert Wroth in 1604 who was considered to be a favorite in the eyes of King James I. The marriage did not get off the ground and Robert Wroth was known to be a man of immoral standing but he was also a wealthy man. His standing in the king’s court brought some benefits to his wife who was invited to the court more often. Mary Worth wrote the romantic prose The Countess of Montgomeries Urania. The particular poem that will be looked at will be “Love peruse me, seeke, and finde” (Poetry Foundation). Wroth wrote Urania to relate the story of two lovers, Pamphilia and Amphilanthus. However, some e of the poems were a narrative of the dealings in court and this caused quite a commotion (Millman & Wright, 2005). Mary was also a mistress to her first cousin with whom she had two illegitimate children making her the centre of a lot of criticism (Maggs). Both the poems, Against love and Love peruse me, seeke, and finde are love poems. Katherine Philips wrote her poems in the 1600’s while Mary Wroth wrote her pieces in the late 1500’s. The gap between the time when the two women wrote their works is not too much and the lives that both led have affected the manner of writing. Against love by Katherine Philips refers to the romance and love and criticizes the emotion (Reocities). Love here is referred to as Cupid and loves use of cheating toys. Katherine points out that love gives grief’s and paints a picture of joy and pleasure. This poem shows the criticism of love and those who fall into love; there is a critique of those women who allow for a man to take control of their lives through the idea of love and thus put the chains around their own legs (Barash, 1996). There is a constant use of rhymes at the end of each line. The ending word of each line is made to rhyme with the last word of the next line and thus creating a sense of a constant rhythm. The imagery that is portrayed by the poem does not seem to be intense though the thoughts are certainly provoking. Katherine’s prose uses quite a critical tone and the imagery makes one portray two lovers where the man is both the weaker and the stronger individual in the relationship. A man is one who seems to be a loner and does not seem to share an emotional connection with any particular women. The use of figurative language is quite extensive; the start of the poem is with a metaphor for love with Cupid. The hopes and feelings that follow the idea of love are considered by the writer to be cheating toys. The truth of what love actually is along with what it is felt to be are described using a figurative language Mary Wroth’s poem is also a related to the notion of love but the context of it would seem to be opposite to that of Katherine Philips poem. Love is not shown to be such a negative emotion and relationship but love is entwined with faith. The notion of love is not negative but it is something that seems to overwhelm an individual and seemingly makes a person’s life blissful. Wroth describes the lover to be faithful and true to his beloved but in the end seems to pass on the idea that perhaps love does doom a person. This romantic prose contained in The Countess of Montgomery’s Urania contains rhyme in the words as the ending words of each line rhyme with the next. The rhythm is constant and does not seem to breakdown at any point in the poem. The imagery again does not generally seem to be present in this poem as one cannot bring a portrait of what the writer is trying to say into mind. The use of figurative language itself is perhaps to a minimum in this particular piece of Mary’s. The poem is simple and straight forward with no real ambiguity in the language used. The poem belongs to Urania which narrates the love story of two lovers, Pamphilia and Amphilanthus which many hold to be a narration based on the life of Mary Wroth’s affair with her cousin. The two poems are perhaps similar in their subject matter, romance and love, but the general idea behind both of them seems to differ. Against love symbolizes a negative side of love where there is not much but deceit and mistrust. Lovers, men to be particular, are immoral with no real sense of commitment and morals while women are the lesser of the two genders who give men the power to use them as they please. Wroth doesn’t seem to share the same perceptions and believes that there is more to love and that it brings joy to life. In the end she does admit that it may imprison and may well doom you but that is not all there is. What is perhaps a point of similarity in the works of both these women is that they were living in times where women were considered to be the lesser sex and the manner of life and the pursuits of these women in their time were looked down upon. The idea of a faithless lover is a reoccurring theme in both the poems as trust in the male gender was not something that both women were not too familiar with. However, generally speaking, Wroth too had a pessimistic perception of love and it felt more of a disease to her (Associated Content). Use of poetic form such as rhyme is present in both the poems and there is a rhythmic feel to both of the poems adding to the similarities in writing style of both women. However there are contrasting styles when it comes to the use of language. Philips uses a more metaphorical language that needs deciphering at times while in this prose of Wroth there is a straight forward manner of writing. Imagery again is perhaps a contrasting point when it comes to writing style of Mary and Katherine. The historical context and environment in which both these women wrote their works was a time that was not to open to women being liberal and the manner in which these two lived their lives, attracting social displeasure, seems to be similar. Their marriages also helped to shape their concept of love and the generally the manner of men’s behavior. Both of these women used their own lives as a rich library to draw inspiration from as their works seem to be based on their lives. Philips work talks of the love shared between women with whom she spent time in the society (jimandellen) that she had created while Wroth used her life of a loveless marriage and her affair with her cousin as inspiration for her poems. The sonnets that she has written talk of lovers who are faithless and even seem to address individuals who were in the King and Queens court at the time. Perhaps this similarity is the greatest in the lives and works of these women as they used their life to paint a picture of what truly does exist for women. Their ideas were frowned upon in their times but modern feminist have considered their work to exalt women at the time. References Associated Content [online]. (2005) [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Barash, C. (1996). English women's poetry, 1649-1714: politics, community, and linguistic authority. 1st. ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Butler, J. and Jokinen, A. (2006). Luminarium [online]. [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Carpenter, A. (2003). Verse in English from Tudor and Stuart Ireland. 1st. ed. Ireland: Cork University Press. Famous Poets and Poems [online]. (n.d) [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Lee, G. (n.d ). Reocities [online]. [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Louisiana State University [online]. (n.d) [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Maggs [online]. (n.d) [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Millman, J. S. and Wright, G (2005). Early modern women's manuscript poetry. 1st. ed. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Moody, E. (2003). Jimandellen [online]. [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Poetry Foundation [online]. (n.d) [Accessed 4 February 2011]. Available from: . Read More