In the essay I am going to look at ‘ Loves Philosophy’ by shelley, ‘ First love’ by John clare, ‘ You smiled by walter savage’, Music when soft voice die and song by John domne.
I will comment on whether some of the images of love are relevant to teenagers today. The poetry uses words that we can understand today. The picture image are ones that we still recognise. For example ‘ Loves philosophy’ uses fountains, rivers, oceans, mountains, sunlight and moonbeams. The fountain describes love in a small way.
The fountain splashes water forming a small pond which then becomes a river, this shows that love can grow. Love can become bigger when the river flows into a great ocean. This shows love lasts very long and gravs bigger and bigger. Love involves everything, you can not love on your own and what ‘ Loves philosophy’ shows is that everything is connected.
The next picture uses personification, we know how it feels to touch something and be touched. In the poem the poet suggests waves clasp one another and sunlight clasps the earth, this shows that they are holding something that they really like, the poem suggests the sea and the earth are like human beings and they have a tender relationship with one another, ending with a kiss. Another image that we can see in our minds eye is sicknes. John clare uses these familiar adjectives describing sicknes. He uses such word to show how it feels to be in love for the first time.
Some examples are ‘ my face turned pale’, ‘ my legs refused to walk’ and ‘ my blood rushed to my face’. I dont think this poem is relevant to most people because at the times it was written men and women were separated from each other making things difficult in regard to contacting each other. In this day and age people can get what they don`t need to be sick because thy will know what will come next.’Loves philosophy’ is not relevant to us either because not everyone is waiting for the big love. For most they are searching for their big love but they are happy to settle for something smaller.
‘ You smiled’ is more relevant to us because many people want to fall in love with someone who is rich and can afford to buy things for them. Sometimes we are happy to be deceived. In ‘ you smiled’ the voice suggests that he wants to be deceived more and more and it seems he is prepared to be deceived so that he can love her. In the poem he wants to have a relationship even though the woman doesnt like him, ‘ you smiled, you spoke and I believed. By every word and smile, decieved’. This common today because people dont want to be alone.
However in the poem ‘ song’ the opposite is the truth. In the first verse John donne tells us, we would have more luck catching a falling star or learning to hear mermaids sing than to find a honest woman. His view is more realistic because he thinks you dont have to look very far. The poet has a different view of women because he seems not to belive in them, where as in ‘ you smiled’ the poet does not care how dishonest his love is; he is prepared to be be decived.
Unlike the voice in ‘ song’ who is not. John donnes view seems very negative, he is not prepared to travel on a pilgrimange and believes that in time all women become false.’Music when soft voices die’ is a huge contrast to ‘ song’ because the poem is positive, he believes love can continue, its a romantic poem. The poet uses all of our senses to express love for example we can smell ituch it, hear it and vibrates in our memory, love does not die. The poem is more relevant because the poet describes how love will continue, he describes love like music that will always vibrate in memories. I think that some of the images are relevant and some are not.
We are as romantic ar prepared to be with people who deceive us and we like John donne ‘ song’ may not travel very far to find love. But most people believe that love will never end, it will always continue and it will give us what we want.
