Saturday, March 27, 2010

Essay on Love

The Dimensions of Love Essay

The idea of Love in “How do I Love Thee” shows love as everlasting, as in “Stop all The Clocks, and Shut off the Telephone” shows love as an until death relationship. The relationship of these two poems blends together because they are both showing love from different outlooks but essentially together because they both love someone important to them. They are just expressing their love in two different ways the writer of “How do I Love Thee” is Elizabeth Barrett Browning, a female while on the other hand, the author of “Stop all the Clocks, and Shut off the Telephone” is W.H. Auden, a male. The love of Browning tends to flow freely for example, How do I love thee? Let me count the ways, I love thee to the depth and breadth and height my soul can reach (Browning pg 811 1-2).

Browning is actually listing ways that she loves her mate. She expresses her love as depth and breadth and goes even further by adding height like a three dimensional figure but a soul can not be seen. So, there is no comparison in her love. She loves freely with all her soul and then some. In Auden’s poem he expresses his love as until death relationship. He loves until the person dies and that is it. Stop all the clocks, and shut off the telephone. Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone (Auden 1-2). This love shows that love is dead once one dies using an example of a dog. The dog gives a symbol of love for a bone but not being able to bark with his wonderful treat or to show how good he was because he got this great bone. This statement also, represents the love and affection of someone because it is not able to be shown once one dies.

Browning’s everlasting love is shown in I love thee to the level of every day’s most quiet need (Browning 6). She is expressing the love for her mate as simple but genuine kind of love. There is no activity to stupid or on any everyday agenda that she does not yearn for with her love. While, Auden describes scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead, Put crepe bows around the necks of the public doves (Auden 6-7). Auden uses He is dead because his love is over and he can not get it back. He then wants to show how important his love was by saying put crepe bows around the white necks of public doves because the whole world should stop to see how important his love really is. He has a resentment of the death of his mate and he switches his tone of importance to bitter by saying put expensive neck ties on important people to see his great loved one dead.

Another example of Browning’s love is I love thee purely as they turn from praise. This is a Christian tone towards the love of God being displayed for her mate. People of God are Portrayed as pure, good, and loving. They also, give their praise to the Lord for his wonderful works. She loves her mate with the love that God has for his people which is everlasting and eternal regardless of fault. On the other hand, Auden shows He was my North, my South, My East, and West, My working week and my Sunday rest (Auden 9-10) there is a limit to this love because of his word choice of was. A bitter tone is implied in this part of the poem because he is hurt by someone close to him passing away.

Browning seems to get lost in her everlasting love for her mate for example, in my grief’s and in my childhood’s faith, I love thee with a love I seem to lose (Browning 10-11). Browning gets lost in her love for her mate. There are no sorrows to small or too big for her love. Nothing seems to matter. She has the love and faith of a five year old that gets kissed for the first time. She believes that this person is her soul mate and they will spend eternity together. Browning gives her heart completely with no restraints or conditions. While Auden believes love is forever but when the time comes and his love dies that is it. It’s over for him for example, I thought that love would last forever; I was wrong (Auden 12). He never put a condition on his love till that person past away. He believed in romance but once his love died he changed his mind. Now, there is a limit and condition that will be with him the rest of his life.

Browning show her everlasting love shine through her for example, Smiles, tears, of all my life and, if God choose, I shall but love thee better after death (Browning 13-14). She shows all the smiles in the world did not change her love. Tears of sorrow and happiness approach but her love still beats strong. She will love her mate till the end and longer. If God chooses she will love her mate in a better place (heaven) for the rest of her days and then love him even more than she does now. On the other hand, Auden shows once a person dies there is no more love. He needs to just pick up the pieces and move on for example, Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood; for nothing now can come to any good (Auden 15-16). He is comparing his heart to an ocean and the ocean is enormous and makes up most of our world today. His love is strong for his mate but once they die that’s it. Sweep up the piece to his broken heart. The rest of his life is ruined and his love will never be the same.

These two poems show love to another person but Elizabeth Barrett Browning shows love more as everlasting while,W.H. Auden shows love as an until death relationship that is classified as love. Both of these poems have a blended meaning of love fitting together. The poems are just portrayed in two different kinds of love everlasting love and a until death love.

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essay on love