Romantic Love and How Sorrow Is Connected to This Kind of Love - Essay Example

?Introduction One of the major recurring themes in poetry throughout the ages is sorrow and love, and how these two are often connected. Whether the sorrow comes from the fact that the love is unrequited, one of the lovers is dead, or from regret over not choosing a path that one might have chosen, sorrow and love are often interconnected through poetry throughout time. This is a theme that weaves throughout time, as seen through many of the poems in the selections below. Discussion For instance, the poem Weep You No More, Sad Fountains , an anonymous poem (p. 120), from the early 1600s, deals with the sadness over losing a loved one to death. This is evident in the overall tone of the poem, which is akin to a dirge. The narrator is evidently the lover who was left behind, as he implores himself to get over his grief. The sad fountains are a metaphor for the narrator’s eyes which are continually weeping with tears over his lost love. The lost love is referred to as his “sun” in the line “my sun’s heavenly eyes view not your weeping” (Lines 6-7). Overall, the narrator is ready to get over his grieving, as is evident in the first line which states “weep you no more, sad fountains” (Line 1). While this poem, from the early 1600s, uses a metaphor to convey sorrow and grief, in that the narrator refers to himself as a “sad fountain,” another poem, The Sick Rose by William Blake (p. 742), from 1794, does the same. Only, instead of the narrator uses a metaphor for himself, the narrator here refers to his lost love in the metaphorical sense. In this poem, the lost love is referred to a “rose,” who is sick. The narrator laments that death has found her – “the invisible worm…has found out thy bed-of crimson joy-and his dark secret love-does thy life destroy” (Lines 5-8). Death itself is also couched in a metaphor, for death is the “invisible worm.” This is an appropriate metaphor, as worms are a part of the decaying body, and worms are generally thought of as distasteful or disgusting, and this is how death is viewed by some, especially the person left behind. Unrequited love is another kind of sorrow that is connected to love, and this, as with grieving over death, is also prevalent in poetry. For instance, There is a Lady Sweet and Kind (p. 121), like Weep, is also from the 1600s, is focused upon this particular theme. In this poem, the narrator laments that he is in love with a woman whom he only saw once, and is convinced that he would love her till he dies. So fascinated with this woman is the narrator that he is convinced that, even though the world passes by, the narrator will continue to love this mysterious woman until he dies. Indeed, this theme is prevalent and universal even today, as the James Blunt song “Beautiful” focuses on this very theme of loving somebody only seen once (Blunt, 2005). The movie Indecent Proposal also touches on the theme, as the main character, John Gage, relates a story of a woman he saw on the subway and how he waited for her, day after day, hoping to see her again and never did. This was a story told with profound regret (Lyne, 2002). Related to the theme of unrequited love is the theme of never finding love, being lonely, yet still being the object of unrequited love. This is the sad theme of the poem She Dwelt Among the Untrodden Ways, a poem from 1850 (p. 789). As with There is a Lady Sweet and Kind, the narrator loved the woman from afar, and, yet, there is an element that the woman herself was sad and lonely. This is evident in lines where poem’s subject was referred to as “A Maid whom there were none to praise and very few to love” (Lines 3-4). The narrator goes on to say that “she lived unknown, and few could know when Lucy ceased to be” (Lines 9-10). Like Eleanor Rigby in the famous Beatles song, the woman lived a non-descript life of loneliness, and few people mourned her passing (The Beatles, 1966). Yet the narrator does mourn her passing, stating “But she is in her grave, and, oh, the difference to me!” (Lines 11-12). Thus, there is both an element of loneliness and unrequited love in this sad poem by William Wordsworth. There is an element of this same theme, that of despair over not finding lasting love or being lonely in the poem Remember , from 1862 by Christina Rossetti (p. 1128). In this poem, the narrator implores her love to remember her when she dies. While much of the poem implies that this poem was to somebody who was in a real love relationship with the narrator, as she talks about how, after she dies, her lover would no longer be able to convene with her on the day to day details of their future, there is also a plaintive tone to it that implies that, perhaps, the relationship was not as solid as the narrator would have hoped. This is evident in the line “yet if you should forget me for a while” (Line 9). This line tells the reader that, perhaps, the relationship was not as solid as the narrator would have wanted, and, perhaps, the lover was elusive to the narrator. A lover who is sure of her loved one’s ardor would never think that her love would forget her after she dies. Yet this narrator addresses this reality. This line introduces a note of unrequited love into the formula, that maybe she loves him much more than he loves her and she is insecure about this. Another kind of sorrow is the kind of sorrow imagined by the narrator in the poem London, a William Blake poem from 1794 (p. 744) . In this poem, the narrator imagines the sorrow that is felt by every person who is living a life of quiet desperation, as Henry David Thoreau might state (Thoreau, 2011). In this poem, the narrator imagines, as he walks through the streets of London, the weakness, woe, terror and helplessness that the inhabitants of the city experience. The narrator then extends this kind of cynicism, that man is generally unhappy, to love, when he states that the “Harlot’s curse” plagues the “Marriage hearse” (Lines 14-16). Thus, the narrator equates marriage with death, and implies that infidelity is at the heart of this equation, as the husband is tempted by the young Harlot. In this case, the sorrow comes from the overall condition of man, who is, in the view of the narrator, doomed to unhappiness from birth, and this congenital unhappiness will extend to couples who love one another enough to marry. While this poem conveys cynicism about the human condition in general, and cynicism about love in particular, Resume, by Dorothy Parker (1926) (p. 1391) displays the same sort of cynicism about life, and, quite possibly, love. There is also a hint that the poem might be about losing a love to heartbreak, as this was a recurring theme in her work (Pettit, 2005). This poem states that suicide is not an option, not because it is inherently bad to kill oneself, but, rather, because every method of suicide is suspect. As she laments that, for instance, nooses give and gas smells awful, she concludes that “you might as well live” (line 8). Parker therefore does not necessarily think that taking one’s life is bad, or that life is worth living, but that, since every method of suicide is abhorrent, this is the only reason to live. While some of the poems display despair over losing a love, or despair over never being loved, Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken (1916) (p. 1232-1233) introduces another element, that of regret. In this poem, Frost talks about a road that he did not take at a point where his life’s path diverged. It is unclear as to exactly what he is referring, but the reader can well imagine that perhaps the narrator had a choice between a life with one woman and a life with another. One of the lives, the life and path that the narrator takes, is, impliedly, an easier life than the other one. This is evident in his statement that this particular road had a “better claim” then the other path, and that it was “grassy and wanted wear” (lines 6-9). However, it is evident that this was not necessarily the life or the path that he should have chosen, as this fact is evident by the lament that “I shall be telling this with a sigh – Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-I took the one less traveled by – And that has made all the difference” (lines 16-20). The fact that the narrator will be telling the story with a sigh tells the reader all that needs to be known about the narrator’s choice of path in life. The narrator took the road that was easier – the life that was grassy and not worn, the life that presented, at the outset, a better claim. Perhaps the narrator had the choice of two women, and one woman looked good “on paper,” and seemed to fit with the narrator better than the other did. Yet, the narrator is evidently looking at the life that he could have had with the other woman with a great deal of regret, and implies that his life could have been completely different if he would have chosen the other path. And, yet, the narrator knows that his choice was made and there can be no going back, when he states that “Yet knowing how way leads on to way- I doubted if I should ever come back” (lines 14-15). While these are all poems that talk about sorrow and love, in the sense of romantic love, there are also poems that speak of sorrow and love in another sense, that of communals with nature. One poem talks about how communing with nature brings the narrator up when he is feeling down, and the other poem speaks about how the love of nature makes him feel less forlorn, yet laments that man is not worthy of nature’s splendor. Both poems are by William Wordsworth, and they both convey a kind of sorrow and lamentability to life that is cured by nature, yet, at the same time, laments that nature and the earth given to us by God is abused by man. In this way, sorrow is blended with love, although the love is not romantic, but, rather, the love is a love of nature and God’s natural bounty. In the first of these poems, I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud, from 1807 (p. 801), the narrator speaks about floating over the hills and coming upon a row of golden daffodils. Specifically, the narrator states that he found ten thousand of these flowers “tossing their heads in sprightly dance” (line 12). So delightful does the narrator find this display of yellow flowers that he could not help but be gay, and, when he is in a vacant or pensive mood, he thinks about these flowers, and this fills his heart with pleasure. While this poem shows how a simple love of nature may cure the sorrow in one’s heart, the other poem shows this same theme, yet shows that man is really not worthy of the bounty, beauty and cheer that nature bestows upon mankind. This poem is called The World Is Too Much with Us, also by William Wordsworth, written in 1807. The narrator here states that nature gives us simple gifts, yet man does not see these gifts. Among these gifts are the sea and the wind. Yet “for this, for everything, we are out of tune; It moves us not. – Great God!” (lines 9-10). The narrator takes joy in his love for the ocean, yet implies that man does not deserve the gift, for man does not appreciate it and is not moved by it. The narrator goes on to wish himself a Pagan so that he might be able to become closer to the source of the sea, and be able to see the gods associated with the sea – Proteus and Triton. The poem also implies that man is too preoccupied with plundering the natural gifts, and this is why he does not see nor appreciate the simple beauty of the sea and other natural occurrence. This is obvious in the line “getting and spending, we lay waste our powers; little we see in Nature that is ours…” (lines 1-2). Conclusion Poetry often has love as its focus, and the tone of the poems are often that of sorrow and pain, and this is associated with the love. Sometimes poetry is focused upon the pain of losing a love to death, or, worse yet, the reality that one might die yet the person who is loved might not grieve or even remember the deceased person. This is a simple kind of sorrow that is associated with love, and this is a prevalent theme. Other times poetry is focused upon unrequited love- sometimes the love is unrequited because the narrator never actually gets a chance to meet the object of his affection, only spot her from afar. This is a prevalent theme, even now, as songs like Beautiful by James Blunt and movies like Indecent Proposal feature stories of people who spot a woman from afar and fall instantly in love, yet lament that they can never have the woman because they never see her again. Sorrow may also come from another source, and that is that life is inherently sorrowful, and this sorrow may be projected unto love. This shows a general cynicism about life, and this cynicism extends to love and death, as shown by the poems mentioned above that focus upon this theme. Regret is another theme, perfectly illustrated in The Road Not Traveled. This poem implies that the narrator’s life is unhappy because he chose his love’s path poorly. Also, while these poems focus upon romantic love, and how sorrow is connected to this kind of love, other poems focus upon a love of nature and how sorrow is connected to this. Perhaps the sorrow is that the narrator cannot be around the source of his pleasure, like with the poem about the daffodils. Perhaps the sorrow is that there is so much natural bounty, and all man wants to do is plunder it, and not enjoy it. Whichever of these themes, however, it is clear that nature is something that should be revered and used to lift one out of sorrow, yet the lament is that man cannot see this and cannot know. Out of these themes, one realizes that love is universal, as is sorrow. And, even more than this, that the two are often connected, and that this is a universal condition of man. Bibliography Pettit, R. (2005) The critical waltz: Essays on the work of Dorothy Parker. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Press. The Beatles (1966) Revolver. [audiorecording] EMI Records. Blunt, J. (2005) Back to Bedlam. [audiorecording] Atlantic Records. Lyne, A. (Director) (2002) Indecent Proposal. [videorecording] Paramount Pictures. Thoreau, H.D. (2011) Walden. 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