Introduction

So there are many types of love. Pure and innocent, and it can also be twisted and dark. Poems on love show the many sides of it and how the poet loves another. Love is versatile and mirrors the structure of some of the "sonnets". Love has no limits, boundaries or capacity because of how different the poems are in showing the levels and intensity of love. Love is a two-way street, where it always includes a second party, the one whom you love be it real or imaginary. And we, yes we, are going to take you down that street.

Delight in Disorder - Robert Herrick

Robert Herrick's book of Poems

A SWEET disorder in the dress
Kindles in clothes a wantonness:
A lawn about the shoulders thrown
Into a fine distraction:
An erring lace which here and there
Enthrals the crimson stomacher:
A cuff neglectful, and thereby
Ribbons flow confusedly:
A winning wave (deserving note)
In tje tempestuous petticoat:
A careless shoes-string, in whose tie
I see a wild civility:
Do more bewitch me than when art
Is too precise in every part.

"Un-confuse" it:

This poem is talking about the perfection of imperfection. From previous generations, humans have always had the need to strive for perfection. However, the poet uses the diction, structure and imagery to convey his own perspective of true perfection.

The poet depends on the visual imagery of woman’s clothing for the reader to relate to the poet. For example, “Kindles in clothes a wantonness” gives an image of a woman wearing untidy clothing that attracts the attention of the poet. The poet is describing the association between a woman’s choice of clothing and how it causes his attraction to her. The poet also focuses on specific features such as “lace”, “cuff” and “ribbons” instead of the whole outfit of the women which actually creates a sense of admiration, despite the imperfections. The poet also states that he prefers these imperfections over precise art

The poet uses diction that depicts a sense of disorder. For example, words like “wantonness”, ”erring”, ”neglected” ,”confusedly”, ”tempestuous”, ”careless” are being used to create a similar visual arrangement of a jumbled mess, which creates a sense of confusion. This further emphasises and enhances the feeling of disorder.

Disorder can be easily seen upon the first sight of the poem. The poem has an irregular rhyme scheme. From the total of fourteen lines, seven couplets can be found in the poem. For example, the first two lines of the poem ends with corresponding sounds which are “dress “from line 1 and “wantonness” from line 2. Lines 9 and 10, and lines 13 and 14 also ends with corresponding sounds. By creating an irregular rhyme scheme, the poet highlights the disorder and suggests that even the poem itself have imperfections. Hence, it conveys a sense of appeal in the imperfect structure of the poem, and possibly a hint of charm in the woman is included.

The poet’s message of the poem is that with flaws, the woman is more perfect.

Bright Star - John Keats

Bright star, would I were steadfast as thou art --
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,
The moving waters at their priestlike talk,
of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors --
No -- yet still steadfast still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a swift unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live-ever -- or else swoon to death.

"Un-confuse" it:

John Keat's real "Bright Star"

John Keats writes his poem about a star. A star, which will never move for eternity and never change. This reflects what he wants from love. He wants his love to be unchanging and it has to suit him. The rhyming scheme is of a Shakespearean sonnet on love. However, he has a completely different view on love as compared to the other poems. He compares love to a painting in “thou art” where love should be perfect and unmoving. He wants to always appreciate it and the lady of his adoration. The words “soft-fallen” show how he uncovers things about the lady, he is stripping her bare. Then as the poem goes, the imageries are with sexual intention. He wants to be “pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast”, “feel for ever its soft fall and swell” and “her tender-taken breath”. He wants that of his lover. Thus all this adds up to what type of love he wants, a dominating type of love. Moreover, the words “priestlike tasks”, “pure” and “snow” can be found in the poem, which means holy or innocent. This contrasts to the type of love he desires from his lover. Juxtaposition is used to highlight the sexual intentions used in the poem. At the last line, John Keats also reinforces that if he does not get to love the life that he so as to mention just now, he would really rather not live at all to be honest. However to be frankly speaking, nowadays nobody would seriously “die” for love and that show how maybe John Keats was not seriously when he wrote the last line in the poem. This also reflects the type of love society has created, not everything is pure and there are many sexual meanings to what lovers do nowadays.

Longing - Matthew Arnold

Come to me in my dreams, and then

By day I shall be well again!

for so the night will more than pay

The hopeless longing of the day.

Come, as thou cam'st thousand times,

A messenger from radiant climes,

Matthew's Cottage area in Surrey

And smile on thy new world, and be

As kind to other as to me!

Or, as though never cam'st in sooth,

Come now, and let me dream it truth,

And part my hair, and kiss my brow,

And say, my love why sufferest thou?

Come to me in my dreams, and then

By day I shall be well again!

for so the night will more than pay

The hopeless longing of the day.

"Un-confuse" it:

“Longing” is one of Matthew Arnold’s most popular works. The poem itself is written in the perspective of a man. The name of the poem is “Longing”. Longing refers to that of a yearning desire for something that is generally distant from it. This man constantly wishes to see a particular woman in his dreams. He dreams of her at night, such that he could be together with her till the next morning. Possibly, he dreams of her at night to make the wait to see her again the next day, less painful. She could be very far away from him, and he really is longing to see her. Thus, the name of the poem. This woman has appeared in the man’s dreams a thousand times before. In fact, she is very kind to him. The man wants the lady to be as kind as she is to him, to others. This woman is not real, as the man can only see her in his dreams. This is evident as the man states in the third stanza that he wants the lady to “Part his hair, and kiss his brow” and he says that he wants her to “Come and let me dream it truth”. This suggests that he wants a physical relationship as such, with this lady, to come true. It shows that he has only been dreaming about it. The last stanza is actually a repeat of the first stanza. This could represent a vicious cycle that symbolizes the man dreaming of the lady: It happens every night. It is very repetitive. The stanza begins with: “Come to me in my dreams, and then By day I shall be well again!” This shows that the man is sick and the lady’s presence, even in that of his dreams, is the only cure. Perhaps, he is lovesick. Aside from that of his dreams, the man is unable to see the Lady very often. Thus, he could be lovesick and longs to see the Lady more. Lastly, the structure of the poem. The poem uses a very distinct Iambic Pentameter. Each sentence contains exactly eight syllables. There is also a very prominent rhyme scheme of “aabb”. I believe this poem applies to anybody, in love. They can also relate to dreaming of their lover, and longing to see them, the very next day. 

Sonnet 43 How Do I Love Thee? Let me Count the Ways - Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and the breadth and the height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death

"Un-confuse" it:

The sonnet is written by an English poet, Elizabeth Browning to her husband Robert Browning and is only one of the 44 she has written for him. She uses many literary techniques to get her idea across. The poem has an obvious rhyming scheme of an Italian sonnet with 12 lines. This is significant because at that time, English poets tend to write in Shakespearean sonnets but Elizabeth Browning had chosen to use the Italian sonnet instead. This then reflects to how love has no boundaries. This can also be seen through how she uses the word “thee” instead or he as “thee” has no gender linked to it and it shows how love has no limits as well.  Moreover, she uses the words “sun’ and “candle-light” in line 6 to show how love is something that we might not always know that it is there but it always is. The poem also uses an excessive amount of “th”. “th” is a soft sound, it is there but rarely heard which parallels to how love may sometimes be strong but it is still present now matter how much we do not see it. This is true on many levels to how our parents love each other, the children may not see it but the parents do love each other so very much. The iambic pentameter is broken in lines 2 and 5 thus adding more emphasis on them. These two lines are the “measurements” of love to, “depth and the breadth and height” and “level of every day’s”. This shows the volume of her love and that it has no capacity and that is how we should show our love. Moreover in society, there is an increase number of mixed race marriages. This also showing how Elizabeth Browning is trying to portray how love has absolutely no boundaries that we have to follow. This makes us think again to how love is treated. 

To My Dear and Loving Husband - Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee.
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me, ye women, if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that river cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay;
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live in love let's so persever,
that when we live no more, we may live ever.

"Un-confuse" it:

This poem is talking about a woman's love to her husband. The poet uses the structure of the poem to convey her intentions of the poem across. The poem has an obvious rhyming pattern of 6 couplets, thus this signifying how strong her love is for her husband through the use of couplets. Moreover, the language used in the first live "two were one", the second line "man" then "wife" and the third line "wife" then "man" show how deep a bond there is between the couple reinforcing the idea behind the rhyming couplets. The poet also compares her husband’s love in lines 6 – 8. In both lines 6 and 7, she compares her husband’s love to “riches” and “whole mines of gold”, and that she prizes her husband’s love to all those precious things. In lines 8 and 9, she compares her own love for him with nature where it is like “rivers that cannot quench” thus then showing how her love for her husband will just keep flowing and that her love for him is endless. Moreover, the only thing she wants back from her unfailing love for him is for him to love her back the same way through “nor ought but love from thee give recompense”.  Back the structure, the last three lines are the only lines that do not follow the iambic pentameter like the rest of the poem. This creates emphasis on the last three lines. These three lines, show both her love for her husband through life and death. “the heavens reward thee manifold, I pray” is the present along with “while we live, in love” show that she wants them to love now. And the last line indicates death in “when we live no more”, she wants them to continue loving till death in “may live ever” which is forever. This shows and reinforces the point to how she wants their love to be endless through both structure and language used and all she wants her husband to do is to love her back endlessly like she will to him. An endless love.

Leveling Confusion - Kugan, Jiayi, Syarifah & Cheryl

I hate you
can't you tell from how I look at you?

I dislike you
is it not evident from my writing to you?

I am fine with you
is our daily pleasantry not enough for you?

  l ke you
do you feel our chemistry during Chemistry?
(i)Phone, (i)Pad, used w thout ma nta ning eye-contact.

How my words do not suff ce from that beh nd a screen,
your presence g ves me conf dence to present what  s w th n.
As I walk to your s de, my fears beg n to subs de,
my worr es res de, I say with conf dence and pr de,

  love you.

"Un-confuse" it:

This poem has a very strong and a very interesting structure to it. The theme it is under is love. However, the poem begins with “I hate you”. This is certainly used to confuse the reader. However, that is what we have chosen to do. Our group has used the idea of starting off with a negative emotion to begin the poem. This is used in juxtaposition of a sweet love. It begins off with the writer hating a certain person. However, the writer slowly realizes that he/she likes that person and later on, finds out that it is love.  However, at the beginning, the writer is unsure of his feelings towards this girl. This is why he asks so many rhetorical questions in the structure. However, his feelings slowly progress in a positive and gentle mood. From hating the girl, to disliking her, to being fine with her, to liking her, and soon Love. The fast changes also reflect to how the audience is meant to be for teenagers, where youths nowadays be it boys or girls have violent and changing moods which cannot be comprehended. In each line before love (eg; I hate you) there is no punctuation, or a full stop to signify that a point has been brought up. This also contributes to the fact that the writer is unsure of his feelings towards the girl, using enjambment. However, in the end when the writer finally says “I love you” there is a full stop, to signify that he is confident and absolutely sure of his feelings towards this girl. The poem also has a distinctive 14 line flow, much like in a sonnet (a poem of love). This fitting as our poem is one of love, but even though it is, it doesn’t follow the elaborate rhyme scheme. This shows how love can also be free without restrain. One of the important points that we have brought up in our poem, is the fact that towards the end of the poem, the letter “I” begins to disappear. In the beginning, the letter “I” remains in the lines as they are used to signify that the writer does not have a certain liking for the girl, yet.  However, as the poem progresses, the writer finds out that he indeed loves her. As such, they are meant to be in a relationship. “I” or “She” is now “Us” and there is no “I” in “Us”. Thus, to symbolize that the writer isn’t just an “I”, but rather “We”, we have taken out all the “I”’s towards the end of the poem. Love isn’t about “I”, it’s about “Us”. The cancellation of the “I” also signifies how in love, our thinking is no longer centered around ourselves but around the one we love, which is also why the word “you” is repeated more times than the letter “I” due to the cancellation.