Sir Michael Drayton: Since There's No Help - Essay Example

From the very first line, it becomes painfully obvious that Drayton has already decided that this relationship is heading to an inevitable end, evennaming his Shakespearean sonnet “Since there’s no help” indicating that the couple can do nothing more to save their crumbling world of togetherness, but to willingly accept the fact that it is over and that it is time to move on. Drayton wants him and his lover to part on friendly terms and makes it clear to her that she can have no more of him.

This statement would seem severe if it was not for the word "Nay" which shows his doubt with his own decision. He is attempting to convince himself, as well as his reader, that he is glad to see this relationship end. He mentions being glad with all his heart, where the word “heart” represents feelings of both love and hate. His heart has once loved this woman, but now this same heart is made to hate and forget her. The word “glad” is a paradox in itself, because when a relationship is brought to an end, few people ever feel glad.

The tone becomes bitter and less understanding for he now wants to clean himself freely of her. He wants to cleanse himself of their relationship and has stronger feelings of bitterness now, but he is still thinking of doing it in a friendly manner: “shake hands forever.” The shaking of hands in acceptance and mutual agreement represents exactly this: acceptance that their relationship has ended and that it would be best for both of them to part. All of the promises they made mean nothing now and they are free of the binding those words caused.

This couple has created a pact that if they shall bump into one another in the future they will not let it show that they even know one another. They are to ignore each other and act like strangers, not letting the other see any emotions they might feel. Their dying love is represented as a sick man on his death bed surrounded by his friends. Love, passion, faith and innocence are all intertwined in this relationship that is about to wither. Love desperately needs the help of them all to continue living.

Drayton’s personification of faith as kneeling by love’s death bed reveals the lack of faith. When there is little faith, love dies. Passion is speechless and weakened, and innocence can no longer face looking at the world. It no longer sees the world as a wonderful place. For this love to be rekindled, passion must burn bright, faith must be restored and innocence must be turned into its grown up sibling, wisdom. In the end, the speaker seems to be unsure of his previous statements and offers a different solution: if only she desired to do so, she could save their love, even after passion, faith and innocence have deserted love, it can still be rekindled, still revived.

He does not state that there is no hope of their love surviving, but that there is no help. He does not believe that the object of his addressing is interested in resuscitating their bedridden love, and so he tries to convince himself, and her, that it would be best for them to part. Sometimes uncertain, at other times angry and pleading for resurrection of their love, he finishes his soliloquy with giving her the choice of the final decision. He is aware that all is not lost for him, and he desperately hopes all is not lost for her, too.