¶ … loss are common concepts in poetry that have been explored by men and women alike, across time and across cultural boundaries. Two such poets are Louise Labe, a French, Renaissance poet and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz, a New Spanish nun and Baroque poet. In Sonnet 23 by Labe and Sonnet 165 by Cruz, issues of love, loss, and impermanence are explored through imagery and tone. In Sonnet 23, Labe attempts to understand why her lover no longer finds her attractive or no longer wants to have a relationship with her. Labe asks, "What good is it to me if long ago you/eloquently praised my golden hair, compared to my eyes and beauty to the flare/of two suns where, you say, love bent the bow, sending the darts that needled you with grief?" In the sonnet, the narrator claims that she was once compared to the sun, which is both radiant and a source of life. The narrator's radiance is compared to the sun in two ways: by the way it glows and makes her hair appear golden and the flares, which appear to create a spark in her eyes. Labe is making it clear that at the beginning of the narrator's courtship, she was being compared to the most beautiful things in nature and her lover told her that her beauty had made him fall in love with her. Labe contends that something has changed in her lover's view of her and wonders, "Where are you tears that faded in the ground?" Labe is stating that she misses the tears that were shed over her during their relationship. The sonnet transitions at this point as Labe makes it evident that the separation between the two lovers was caused not because they wanted it to, but due to the untimely death of her lover. Moreover, Labe comments on the futility of oaths and honors of constant love that were made while they were still together because it seems like a lie now. Labe accuses her lover of trickery and appears angry at her lover for making her fall in love with him. She claims, "Your brutal goal was to make me a slave/beneath...
This mutually beneficial love is not seen as being equal because her lover can no longer love her back, yet she cannot do anything but love him.
Poetry during the 17th century often shared similar themes, narratives, and messages. These topics often revolved around concepts of innocence, romance, loss, temptation, and desire, especially when it came to courtship. Andrew Marvell, a prominent English metaphysical poet and politician, whose "To His Coy Mistress," thought to have been written during the 1650s, explores themes of innocence and temptation, especially in terms of courtship. Moreover, "To His Coy Mistress" can
" The differences in these two lines seem to be only a matter of syntax but in actuality, it also differs in the meaning. The King James Bible version makes it seem like the Lord is making the individual do something, as if by force or obligation, while the Puritan version states that the Lord causes the individual to do something, as if out of their own will. This alone
These young men were not immersed in the high modernist traditions of Virginia Woolf and T.S. Eliot: rather, they were immersed in the experience of war and their own visceral response to the horrors they witnessed. Thus a multifaceted, rather than strictly comparative approach might be the most illuminating way to study this period of history and literature. Cross-cultural, comparative literary analysis is always imperfect, particularly given the linguistic challenges
This is why wars are fought with bloodletting, why torture takes place, and why neither violence nor war is limited to the physical carnage of the battlefield. Nordstrom 59) The early death of Clifton's mother, as a result of having to powerlessly rely on a liar and a letch who could not provide for his family, is the ultimate example of self-inflicted violence, as is Gillman's character resorting to an expression
" The point made by the poet is similar to the poem above. The reference to John, The Father of our souls, shall be, John tells us, doth not yet appear; is a reference to the Book of Revelations, at the end of the Bible. That despite the promises of an Eternal life for those who eschew sin, we are still frail and have the faults of people. We are still besought by sin
Book Analysis African-American: SUMMER SUN RISIN' W. Nikola-Lisa, Author, Don Tate, Illustrator, illus. By Don Tate. 2002. An Afro-American lad helps his parents to work on their farm, rather leisurely as they enjoy the gradual movement of the sun to dusk. The family creates time for some fun after a long day's work on the farm, including hoeing, milking the cows, tending hedges, among other tasks in the simmering heat of the day's
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now