How Do I Love Thee and La Belle Dame Sans Merci - Assignment Example

Comparing two love poems – ‘How do I Love Thee?’ and ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ Literature has offered the readers a culmination of different styles,variations in use of figures of speech, theme and structure from time immemorial. Poets from different decades have treated similar themes in their unique manner. The interesting part of poetry is the observation of the way in which the treatment of the common themes varies from one poem to another. The time period also has a significant influence on the approach of a poem. For the purpose of analysis the paper focuses on two poems centering on the theme of love but written at different time periods by two different poets from England. The first poem is ‘How do I Love Thee?’ by Elizabeth Robert Browning (1806-61) published in 1850 (Browning, xlvi) and accessed from the work Sonnets from Portuguese (no. XLIII). The second poem is the famous poem ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ or the “Beautiful Lady without Mercy” by John Keats, first published in The Indicator in the year 1820 (Frost, 243). There is a difference of 30 years between the two poems apart from their approach towards the theme of love chosen by both. The poems ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ and ‘How do I Love Thee’ are connected with the similar feel, solemnity of undertone, uses of images and figures of speech despite belonging to different decades. Browning’s style of writing conforms to the 14-line sonnet but the rhyming pattern is not conventional and often appears disoriented. The rhyming style pertains to the Petrarchan way (Morlier, 97). She uses diction and structures of the lines, which appear unconventional and broken at times. The style in which Barrett Browning presents the poetic tone in her work Sonnets from the Portuguese, have failed to convince most of the Victorian critics. For instance the poet uses “put to use” in rhyme with the phrase “to lose” the first one is a noun phrase while the later is an infinitive (Morlier, 97). In fact different explanations were put forward by the Victorian critics, some of who attributed this disorientation to “a defective ear for music” (Morlier, 97). The poet has been criticized for using offensive pronunciation instead of taking the trouble to actually explore the correct version and form. Certain critics like Alethea Hayter probed into the “technical experiments” with the rhymes (Morlier, 97). The poet was supposed to have brought in “assonantal double-rhyme”. However despite the lack of convention the flow of emotions and passion she feels towards her husband is quite evident in the lines. Use of enjambments has often disrupted the structure. For instance, “How do I love thee? Let me count the ways” and “Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose” (Browning, xliii). The expressive tone of the poet is evident and the ultimate love towards her husband is expressed even through the syntax and rhyme set in the poem. It is revealed in the poem that she has found a reason to live while dwelling in the love of her husband. Browning’s poem contains an underlying theme of sadness or a feeling of helplessness, which arises from being invalid physically. She was supposed to be destined to remain as an old maiden throughout. The unselfish nature of her approach towards love and its intensity is prominent. Her love is not limited and extends beyond all times and all stages of life. She uses certain figurative language like the anaphora, which is used as a rhetoric tool. This represents a repetition of words in order to give emphasis on certain phrases, which they precede. The following stanza reveals this use of anaphora: “I love thee freely, as men strive for Right; I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise. I love thee with the passion put to use in my old grief?s, and with my childhoods faith. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose? At the end of the Clause” (Browning, xliii) Browning’s lyric poem is an ideal example of an iambic pentameter. The rhyming pattern followed here is abbcdabbaefefef. The poem initiates emotion, melody and fantasy. She uses metaphors to explain her love. For instance, in the poem, she compares her faith she had in her childhood to the love she felt for the husband. This reveals the innocence hidden in her emotions. Use of diction to express symbolism comes through the use of dimensions like “height”, “width” and “breadth”. These terms explain the expansiveness and the completeness of her love. This choice of words has created imagery and embeds the touch of romanticism within her poetry. She compares her love with men who fight for their freedom. She says that her love is free in order to indicate the lack of any materialism or other conditions, which bound free expression of such feelings. The use of personification has enhanced the focus on words like “Right”, Praise”, etc which are indirect metaphors used for the comparison that in turn has been highlighted by the vision of sun and candlelight created. Unlike the sonnet structure of Browning, Keat’s work ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ is a lyrical ballad, which begins with an anonymous speaker questioning the knight. Besides the narrative expression of a musical structure, the wonderful use of imagery, figures of speech, diction and symbolism have enriched the poem further. The poem consists of twelve verses with four lines in each. This harmony (rhyming pattern followed for all the verses is abcb) and change of situation from one verse to another makes it an interesting reading. This is unlike the case of Browning’s work where the tone mood is reflective in nature. In this case the mood is narrative. The very obvious imagery used is reflected in the decaying sedge in the lake water, which signifies the fading of love from the life of the knight. The solemn and lonely condition of the knight is symbolized through the contrasting evidence all around. For instance the “squirrel’s granary if full” and “And the harvest’s done” (Frost, 243) signifies the completeness of the surrounding and on the contrary the “lily on thy [knight’s] brow” (Frost, 243) signifies the sadness which troubles the knight who was evidently once in love but has been ditched by the beautiful lady whom he adores. After the first three verses devoted to the anonymous speaker the knight take sup the last nine verses to answer his question eventually. The best part of the poem is the comprehensive nature is has and the flow and transition from one scene to another with smoothness. Enjambment is used even here but unlike the case of Browning’s poem the syntax is not awkward in nature. He uses the conventional ballad structure to narrate the incident. Use of metaphors has been significantly used in the poem especially in the phrases like “fever dew” and “anguish moist” (Frost, 243). The forehead has beads of perspiration, which signifies a suffering (anguish) agitation (fever). The moisture and the drops of perspiration have been used to represent the condition of the knight. Although the two poems share the common theme, there is a note of suffering and loneliness in the poem of Keats while the poem of Browning reveals the overwhelming love she received from her husband and did not get tired of expressing her feelings for him with till satisfaction. Therefore the tone differs in the two poems. Owing to the availability of space and the choice of structure Keats have obviously enjoyed more freedom with the use of imagery, symbolism and figures of speech. None of the poems makes any recommendation or provides any advice. While the first poem has a reflective tone the second one is narrative and descriptive in nature. Unlike the ballad, the sonnet has no anonymous speaker or a third person in the poem. It is rather a kind of monologue by the poet. While Keats uses more of metaphors and imageries, Browning stuck more to the use of anaphora in order to lay emphasis on the depth of her thoughts and feelings. Keats also does justice to his work by using more symbolism, imageries and metaphors that are ideal for a descriptive tone and a vivid presentation of an incident, which reveals the rapid transformation of situations, emotions and production of such contradictions. Again both the poems were written in the Victorian era when lyrical poetry was a characteristic of literature. Finally, in conclusion, we may say that the works of both Browning (the sonnet) and Keats (the ballad) has reflected the passion and intensity of emotions in their own ways. Their choice of structure and style also depended on the kind of tone and undertone used by them. Both the poets, despite the difference in presentation have been able to produce the depth of emotions reflected through the use of words in poetry. The uniqueness of the poems lie in the fact that the feel of the poems come first to our notice, prior to the styles and structure. Although browning has been criticized for her experimentation, her thoughts and feel are no way lessened by the syntax and style she used. Works Cited Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, Sonnets from the Portuguese, Wildside Press, 2008. Frost, William, Romantic and Victorian Poetry, READ BOOKS, 2007. Morlier, Margaret M. "Sonnets from the Portuguese" and the Politics of Rhyme”, Victorian Literature and Culture, 27.1 (1999), pp. 97-112 Read More