Poetry: Love Through The Ages

‘Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde:’ structure, rhyme scheme, context

• Sir Thomas Wyatt- said to have an affair with Anne Boleyn prior to her marriage with Henry VIII

• Hunting: social sport for upper class men (alludes to love being a battlefield for men). Doesn’t challenge social/gender norms and instead reinforces them (limiting the possibilities of women)

• Petrarchan Sonnet (14lines), likely written in 1530s.

• Rhyme Scheme: Controlled/ordered but in close proximity, repetitive, use of monosyllable words- allows consistency in tone

• Meter: iambic pentameter with metrical ambiguity (tripping motion- stabilisation is temporary)

‘Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde:’ Analysis

• The speaker describes love as a desperate & violent sport. This pursuit (of hunting the woman he loves down) has failed, so the speaker spends the poem explaining why he is giving up the hunt (Unrequited love, but not romantic). Extended metaphor to convey the dynamics of their relationship: its like hunting a deer he cannot catch. Can be read as an eloquent expression of devotion, with hints of it being threatening/violent to its object

• ‘Hath weried me so sore’- the assonance and verb combination emphasises the ambiguity of his pain- an emotional pain of heartbreak OR a physical pain from ‘hunting’ the woman he is so dedicated to? Chased her to the point of mental&physical exhaustion.

• ‘Drawe from the Deere…Faynting I followe’- Poem constitutes an extended admission of defeat: he knows he cannot catch the woman- other men will end up just as exhausted & dejected. Predatory nature-long ‘D’ sounds reflect a dreamy state Vs the fricatives on following line reflecting her fast pace OR his breathing- he is struggling to keep up with her and maintain a conscious thought about her. It is a testament for the depth of his love- and the extent of his frustration.

• ‘I seke to hold the wynde’- metaphor (&homophone) betrays something darker in the poem. What would happen if he were to capture her? Compares her to the wind (with an archaic word) and him being able to hold it- oxymoronic; it’s impossible. Symbolises the futility of pursuing something unattainable. The wind- like the woman- is elusive&untamable: she is beyond his reach.

• ‘Diamondes’ around her ‘neck’- implies that she is already in possession of someone of high status. Contradictory- something so beautiful is being suppressed and isolated. The diamonds embellish her beauty&draws people to her YET it also warns other men she is already owned - power dynamic.

• ‘Nola me tangere for Cesars I ame’= “Touch Me Not, Caesars I am”- possible allusion to Jesus saying ‘touch me not’ to Mary Magdalene after resurrection. Casts the woman as something purer than the men persecuting her (beyond their brute/violent physicality). The woman is not autonomous, she is branded- ownership & objectification. Has no voice in poem, yet her actions speak louder- she is able to outrun & escape the men- but is this enforced by her ‘owner’? Women can never be truly free; any relative freedom they find comes only in the form of protection by men.

‘Song (Ae fond kiss)’: context, rhyme scheme, form etc

• Robert Burns- past national poet of Scotland, incorporated his Scottish heritage (vocab, grammar, stylistic elements). Published towards end of his life.

• Describes two lovers parting, a letter exchanged between the two by Burns.

• Rhyme scheme: highly regular, steady flow, similar consonant sounds

• Form: 3 Octaves , regular, intention for it to be set to the tune of a Scottish folk song

• Meter: Trochaic tetrameter (each line has an unstressed syllable to emphasise certain words)

‘Song (Ae Fond Kiss)’: Analysis

• A separation before leaving one another forever. A heartfelt farewell song, expressions of both regret for the loss & reflection on the past joys they shared. The speaker asks for a final kiss (‘Ae fond kiss, and then we sever’)- the antithesis of ‘fond’/‘sever’ show the emotional turmoil of parting with their lover- acknowledging the intense sorrow of the moment and the permanence of their goodbye (‘Ae farewell, and then for ever!’)

• ‘I’ll pledge thee/Warring sighs and groans I’ll wage thee’ - ultimately tor between wistful memories and the anguish that they will never come again. It is waging a war inside of him (onomatopoeia), signifying the deep hurt he feels about her leaving. He will offer all his emotions to her. The only thing he can feel/imagine feeling, is hopelessness.

• (Repeated at end of poem- epiphora. Parallelism of their goodbye)

• ‘I’ll ne’er blame my partial fancy’- despite his suffering, he doesnt criticise himself for having been too easily attracted to his beloved. ‘But to see her, was to love her.’ Just seeing her would be enough to make anyone fall in love- he justifies himself/the depth of his love with her universal attractiveness.

• ‘Had we never’ X2 ‘Never met - or never parted.’- reflection on what would have happened if he never met her- they wouldn’t have had to suffer this devastating loss (bittersweet). Anaphora- repetition shows his love&commitment BUT also his devastation and profound feeling of loss. The poem begins with pronouns ‘I’ but moves to ‘we’ - a sense of blame on her for leaving. Repitition also suggests that the speaker is trying to delay the ‘fare-thee-well’

• ‘Fairest’ ‘Dearest’- superlatives indicate how irreplaceable she is. He will continue to honour her through memories and his grief of their parting. Reminds her that she is the first & only woman he has ever loved; there will be no one to compare her to. He reminds her again of the terrible sorrow he will feel from losing her, with a continuance of honouring her.

‘The Garden of Love:’ context, structure, rhyme scheme

• William Blake: Romantic poet, was religious yet criticised the Church of England, published within ‘Songs of Experience,’ focus on freedoms&sublimation of nature

• Structure: Ballad Meter, clear point of argument, ominous tone, anapaestic trimeter