Pre-1900 Poetry Anthology Critics, love through the ages poetry critics

"Who so list to hount I knowe where is an hynde" critic response

McBratney: "Explores feelings surrounding obsession of unattainable love"

"Sonnet 116" critic response

Thomas Ledger: "set in such a context it nevertheless rises above the waves of destruction, for it confronts all the vicissitudes that have afflicted the course of the love described in these sonnets"

"The Flea" critic response

Amanda Boyd: "Donne's poetry does not demean women but in fact acknowledges and appreciates all of their capabilities"

"To His Coy Mistress" critic response

McBratney: "the imagery of the worms contrasts the earlier playful use of phallic imagery"

"The Scrutiny" critic response

Unknown: "it is a rather nasty poem: cruel, clever and somehow lacking in real emotion"

"A Song (Absent From Thee)" critic response

Marianne Thormahalen: "his mind possesses no power to keep him off certain misery and it is obviously unlikely ever to gain such strength; in other words, only death can stop his straying"

"The Garden Of Love" critic response

McBratney: "the garden becomes where desires are forbidden and joys are constrained"

"Song (Ae Fond Kiss)" critic response

Walter Scott: "essence of a thousand love tales"

"Remember" critic response

Unknown: "the speaker mentions her presumably male lover talking at her, perhaps patronising her, and a future which the male lover planned, not one they dreamed together. This presents a view of the relationship where the man held power and had complete control of the female speaker"

"The Ruined Maid" critic response

Stanley Renner: "Hardy exploits the great well of moral and sexual feeling bound up with the idealisation of female purity and the shock he could evoke by merely mentioning the word 'ruin' "

"At An Inn" critic response

Albert J Guerard: "the pure, unsentimental notes of sadness, loneliness and deprivation sounded decade after decade; the sense of a life as a succession of small undramatic defeats; the honest declaration of unfaith and unhope."

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci: A Ballad" critic response

Theresa M Kelley: "because the poem that bears her name is evidently riddled with signs of its indebtedness to earlier poems, it presents a strong, perhaps deliberately exaggerated, case for the poetic value of figures that acknowledge their history"

"Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae sub Regno Cynarae" critic response

Stephanie Weiner: "Dowson's poems depict a world of grey shadows in which bright colours belong to a fleeting, lost existence"

McBratney on whoso- poem explores?

"explores feelings surrounding obsession of unattainable love"

McBratney At an Inn- tone of the final stanza

"the speaker's tone becomes more passionate"

McBratney sonnet 116- poem explores

"the qualities of ideal love, stressing it's enduring nature"

McBratney sonnet 116- the star

"Love is a mysterious force"

McBratney Non sum Qualis- alexandrine effect

"allow the speaker to linger on the emotion of every line"

Rumens Non sum Qualis- Cynara represents

"represents the lost love who has become a constant obsession"

wheeler The Flea- on "kill"

"a metaphor suggesting that she mistreats him by denying him her love and by refusing to sleep with him"

McBratney Coy- imagery of the worms

"contrasts the earlier playful use of phallic imagery"

(phallic sexual/ erect penis)

McBratney Garden of love- the Garden becomes

"where desires are forbidden and joys are constrained"

McBratney La Belle- cyclical effect on the knight?

"is condemned to loitering life of discontent"

McBratney Non sum- idea of abandonment

"idea of the crushing depression that can come from being abandoned by one who was loved intensely"

McBratney on the scutiny: the metaphor in stanza 3?

"the active explorer and the woman the passive land or the 'treasure' waiting to be found"

McBratney on La Belle- the cyclical effect on the reader?

"sense of entrapment"

what does Rumens on 'Who so' say about "faynting I followe" and disappointment?

"Disappointed affections he describes with such heartfelt anguish"

what does Wheeler (scutiny) say the poem is scrutinising?

"scrutiny of male promiscuity, arrogance and selfishness through egotistical gratification"

What does Wheeler say about the 'Garden' and as a passage?

"The passage from innocence to experience"

What does Tearle say about 'At an Inn' and the speaker and fate?

"The speaker curses the fact that fate has thrown them together"

What does Schulkins say that Keats is doing to his protagonist?(La Belle)

"Keats criticises the narcissistic love of his male protagonist"

What does McBratney say about Non Sum and obsession?

"powerful obsession for a former love"

How does Wheeler describe the position of the speaker in 'She walks in Beauty'?

"objective praise by a disinterested observer"

How does Wheeler summarise the speaker's aim of 'she walks in beauty'?

"attempts to praise the appearance and the moral purity of the woman"

What does Wheeler call the tone of 'Remember'?

"brave and stoical"

how does Wheeler describe the intimacy of 'Remember'?

"its intimacy is subdued"

What does McBratney call the rhythm of 'Ae fond kiss'?

"sad, falling rhythm" (feminine endings)

What does McBratney call the second stanza of 'Ae fond kiss'?

"nadir" (bleakest point of poem)

Why does Wheeler suggest that 'Ae fond kiss' has a paradox?

full of sadness yet celebrates close relationship they had

What does Wheeler say 'Ae fond kiss' is about? (asserts)

"asserts so unequivocally one person's love for another"

what does McBratney suggest that the trochaic meter of 'Ae fond kiss' does?

"underscore the sadness"

How does Wheeler describe Rochester's tone in 'Absent from thee'? how can this be refuted and how can it show speaker's internal conflict?

"Rochester's tone is loving and tender and implies fidelity to his lover"

How does Wheeler describe love in victorian society? (ruined maid)

"Love is debased by money in victorian society"

What changes does Wheeler note that Melia (ruined maid) undergoes?

"superficial changes"