John Keats- La Belle Dame sans Merci

La Belle Dame sans Merci
BY JOHN KEATS

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
       Alone and palely loitering?
The sedge has withered from the lake,
       And no birds sing.

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms,
       So haggard and so woe-begone?
The squirrel’s granary is full,
       And the harvest’s done.

I see a lily on thy brow,
       With anguish moist and fever-dew,
And on thy cheeks a fading rose
       Fast withereth too.

I met a lady in the meads,
       Full beautiful—a faery’s child,
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
       And her eyes were wild.

I made a garland for her head,
       And bracelets too, and fragrant zone;
She looked at me as she did love,
       And made sweet moan

I set her on my pacing steed,
       And nothing else saw all day long,
For sidelong would she bend, and sing
       A faery’s song.

She found me roots of relish sweet,
       And honey wild, and manna-dew,
And sure in language strange she said—
       ‘I love thee true’.

She took me to her Elfin grot,
       And there she wept and sighed full sore,
And there I shut her wild wild eyes
       With kisses four.

And there she lullèd me asleep,
       And there I dreamed—Ah! woe betide!—
The latest dream I ever dreamt
       On the cold hill side.

I saw pale kings and princes too,
       Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
They cried—‘La Belle Dame sans Merci
       Thee hath in thrall!’

I saw their starved lips in the gloam,
       With horrid warning gapèd wide,
And I awoke and found me here,
       On the cold hill’s side.

And this is why I sojourn here,
       Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is withered from the lake,
       And no birds sing.

John Keats was an English poet writing in the early 19th century, towards the end of what became known as the ‘Romantic period’; a political and social movement as well as a literary one. Towards the end of the 18th century ‘love’ again becomes a major poetic theme, and among the Romantic poets, Keats is arguably one of the most ‘romantic’. The stories that Keats tells in his narrative poems are love stories, the facts about his life and early death, and his love for Fanny Brawne, are romantic ones, and in his poetry he is explicit about feelings and emotions. ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ was written in the heat of his passion for Fanny Brawne. He was on fire poetically, in love, growing ill, and suffering from depression. The poem is a narrative of an encounter that entails both pleasure and pain.

‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’ is in the poetic form of a ballad; generally using a bouncy rhythm and rhyme scheme to tell a story. The poem follows a singsong pace, and Keats compresses the lines by using a final line of only four or five syllables. This pattern hastens the poem’s rhythm as the lines act like a spring, hurtling us forward, “And no birds sing”. Moreover, Keats uses an array of euphemisms including “fragrant zone”, which could be flowers or a particular part of his lover’s body. The landscape is lush with meadows and spring, wild honey and manna dew, but the story quickly moves from idyllic to horrific, as the fairytale romp turns to imprisonment on a cold hillside.

The lady of ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ can simply be depicted as the woman of whom broke the heart of the knight. His re-telling of the story, yet, casts her as supernatural in order to excuse his own weakness. “A fairy’s child” is the first hint that the lady is in some way associated with the supernatural, however this line doesn't make it clear whether the lady is a fairy, or whether she's just so beautiful and mysterious that she seems like "a fairy's child." Repetition of “fairy” comes soon after in “A fairy’s song”. It is possible to read this as a romantic hyperbole, implying her voice is so sweet to the enraptured knight that it sounds magical to him.

Furthermore, in the first three stanzas the poet appears as a third-person narrator, but after asking him what’s going on, the knight's answer takes up the rest of the poem. The knight’s story is of coming upon “a lady in the meads”, but after some moments shared between them, she "lulled" him to sleep, and eventually, the knight finds himself in a dream where he is surrounded by all of the lady’s previous victims, who include kings, princes and warriors; her taste in men is evidently consistent: “I saw pale kings and princes too, pale warriors, death-pale were they all”. The repetition of “pale” reinforces the significance of tubercular illness, which Keats was diagnosed with.

The idea of love suffers in ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’ as it is evidently one-sided; the lady "loves" in line 19, and confesses her love in line 28, whilst the knight only admires her beauty.  In “I set her on my pacing steed, and nothing else saw all day long”, it is suggested the knight is so obsessed with the beautiful lady that he spends the day gawking at her, raising the question that is whether this is love, or an obsessive lust. Regardless, the relationship between the lady and the knight in this poem is doomed from the start as they’re both from essentially different worlds.

Similar to ‘The Anniversary’ by John Donne, the theme of death is explored in ‘La Belle Dame sans Merci’, however quite differently. Whilst the ‘belle dame’ plays a figure of love and fantasy, she is also the agent of death and decay to the knight. Conversely, Donne claims the only thing not subject to “decay” is the love that he and the object of his affections share, suggesting love surpasses death. Moreover, both poems are told in the man’s narrative. The motives of the lady in "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" are described only from the knight's point of view; because the knight is not a reliable narrator, it is possible that the reason she weeps in her "elfin grot" is that the knight has injured her in some way. In comparison, it's possible Donne’s perception is biased in that his and his lovers love for one another, is “mutual”.

Ultimately, the more we consider the knight’s story, the more we uncover parallels with Keats’s life; the poem might very well express figuratively what Keats was experiencing in his love life and his health. The knight’s predicament in the poem is Keats’s drama transformed and played out in allegorical fashion. Keats’s knight is lost and abandoned which is how the poet himself would eventually refer to the last months of his life just two years later.

M Chacko

Compare Donne’s presentation of love with the love in ‘The Great Gatsby’

John Donne was born in 1572; Donne was brought up a Catholic. In 1601 Donne committed an act which led him to life in prison for several months. Donne had married the daughter, Ann More, of a member of parliament, Sir George More. For the last few years of his life Donne focused on writing poetry, his poems were famous for their conceits; odd comparisons or poetic image created that runs through the whole poem, and metaphysical imagery; elaborate metaphors.

Donne’s lines across each stanza create an A, B, B, A rhyme. In the second stanza for example, this can be seen by looking at the last words on each line. The first line ends in ‘strong’, the second in ‘think’, the third in ‘wink’ and the fourth in ‘long’. Donne bases his poem ‘The Sun Rising’ around a conceit, the ‘sun’, the conceit changes throughout as the poem progresses. Donne’s poems contain many double meanings, like the conceit, the ‘sun’, the ‘sun’ can be an image used to describe warmth or happiness or the life of day. The starting of his poem ‘The Sun Rising’ produces the thought that the sun is disliked by Donne; he portrays it to be a ‘BUSY old fool’. Donne uses personification to describe how the sun has been constantly rising and setting for decades. ‘Through windows, and through curtains’ it calls on them, Donne’s lover and himself. Donne asks the sun a question, further emphasizing the personification being used, ‘must to thy motions lovers’ seasons run?’ He questions why the motions of lovers have to comply with the getting up and settling down of the sun. Donne states that ‘love, all alike’, ‘no season knows nor clime, nor hours, days, months’, here he expresses love to be dominant and not be defined by change, in time or seasons, he conveys that love is greater than time.

Donne’s presentation of love in ‘The Sun Rising’ seems to show that his whole world could revolve around the love that is felt towards another. Donne shows understanding of time and how there is nothing that can stop time and days from moving forward, coming to an end and starting again. However this does not seem to matter. His attitude towards love, especially towards the end of ‘The Sun Rising’ shows that changes may occur, things may get in the way, like the sun but the love is always there.  He and his lover might have to get out of bed and live the days they have left but this love that they share, in one word is ‘everything’; ‘shine here to us, and thou art everywhere, this bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere’.

Like Donne’s poem ‘The Sun Rising’, his poem ‘The Anniversary’ clasps onto a similar tone. In both poems Donne refers to love as something that can beat time. In ‘The Anniversary’ he had written ‘our love hath no decay’ and this is similar to when in ‘The Sun Rising’ Donne says ‘nor hours, days, months... rags of time’. Love is timeless.  It is also possible that his image of love remains the same over a period of time, although a difference between the two poems would be that ‘The Anniversary’ speaks more of the realities of time. It could be argued that Donne’s idea of love is more matured in ‘The Anniversary’, as it speaks of matters like death. Donne juxtaposes the political image of ‘Kings’ with natural imagery of the ‘sun’. Donne’s attitude towards love is similar to that in ‘The Sun Rising’ as it is strong and if in battle with something will always come out on top. However it is different as Donne uses the aspect of death in ‘The Anniversary’, the serious tone demonstrates loves importance.

In the second stanza Donne considers the fact that eventually he and his lover will have lived their lives and there will come a day when both of them meet their ‘everlasting day’. Donne understands that nature of life can rob them of their physical being but nonetheless he and his lover will have ‘souls where nothing dwells but love’. Love again is represented as something that will always have a winning battle when in conflict with anything. Whether it is ‘time’ and being a depredation of time, which is spoken of in both ‘The Sun Rising’ and ‘The Anniversary’, or whether it is ‘death’, which is the mentioned to be the ‘divorce’ of two lovers. Donne emphasises on the sovereignty of their love, the dominance it has over life, he goes as far as mentioning love in the afterlife, ‘a love increased there above’.

F Scott Fitzgerald’s ‘The Great Gatsby’, was published in 1925, during the historical period known as the ‘roaring twenties’. This was when jazz music and expressive culture was introduced. Fitzgerald uses these developments in writing Great Gatsby. Love in ‘The Great Gatsby’ was based on many things; it seemed to be dependent on wealth/ materialism, social class/ education.

Fitzgerald displays how one can become love’s fool in Gatsby, using Gatsby himself as a prime example. Gatsby’s character is one that shows how far someone in love can go to give it more purpose. Fitzgerald’s presentation of love shows that love has consequences. Gatsby’s love for Daisy led him so far but in the end it only had led him to his destruction. Gatsby portrays love as something that perhaps also has a time and place, Gatsby’s love for Daisy was an old love, and his struggle to bring back the same passion felt in the past corrupted the future. The irony displayed in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is that Gatsby was reaching forward for his love, to create a future for both him and Daisy, but it caused him to reach too far back into his past. We can question if Gatsby really in love with Daisy or just a dream version of her. Fitzgerald creates this allusion of love; Daisy convinces herself that she loves Gatsby, the same as when they’d first met, though the end implies that she was a materialistic kind of girl. Fitzgerald shows that love that is based on materialistic needs isn’t true love, sometimes it can just become a means of survival. If Gatsby and Daisy had stayed together when they had first met, it would not have been socially acceptable, but whether love is socially accepted or not, if it is spiritual rather than plain physical it will last a whole lot longer.

In ‘The Great Gatsby’, Daisy mentions that “I did love him (Tom) once- but I loved you too”, Fitzgerald explores love deeper, love that is felt for more than one person. Love only seems to be seen when it is associated with the character of Gatsby. The fact that he would go to such an extent to win over the one he really loves must show that his love is true, even if his character shows that he is obsessed with this past image of him and Daisy. Fitzgerald portrays Daisy’s love for Gatsby as materialistic; she appears content with the massive parties and the expensive gifts. The fact is she seems more involved in what materialistic needs Gatsby can provide rather than in blossoming or recreating her past love for Gatsby. Her love for him could be considered hyperbolic instead of selfless.

Donne and Fitzgerald both believe in love’s importance, its necessity. Though there is a difference in both of their writing periods, Donne’s writing was during the Renaissance/ Elizabethan Age, whereas Fitzgerald’s was just after the First World War, it is agreed upon that love is powerful. Historical context can affect the view of love that is held by an individual or group. For example, love in Donne’s poem ‘The Sun Rising’ seems restricted. Donne’s love for Ann More wasn’t socially accepted. Similarly, in ‘The Great Gatsby’, in Daisy and Gatsby’s past, their love was also restricted and also because it wouldn’t have been socially acceptable. However, the time period Gatsby was written and published in, women were receiving more freedom than they would have during Donne’s writing period. A similarity in John Donne’s poems and Fitzgerald’s novel is that both are speaking of realities of love, love as a feeling and love as it is seen by others during their time periods. From Donne’s poems i can understand that love can outdo all things, time, life and death and more, though from Fitzgerald’s novel i understand that much can get in the way of love and love is strong but is also dependent on those that feel it. Love could or can be something that surpasses everything, but its power is based on the power that those in love have given it. Love faces obstacles and sometimes is weakened; time can create more firm bonds though it can also change feelings or the strength and power of love. Overall Donne seems to focus on the more positive sides of love whereas Fitzgerald focuses on both the positives and negatives of love. However none, (Donne’s poems or Fitzgerald’s novel) are wrong in their views or portrayals of love.

iH

The speaker opens the poem with a question addressed to the beloved: “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” The next eleven lines are devoted to such a comparison. In line 2, the speaker mentions what mainly differentiates the young woman from a summer’s day: he is “more lovely and more temperate.” Summer’s days tend toward extremes: they are shaken by “rough winds”; in them, the sun (“the eye of heaven”) often shines “too hot,” or too dim. And summer is fleeting: its date is too short, and it leads to the withering of autumn, as “every fair from fair sometime declines.” The ending of the sonnet tells how the beloved differs from the summer in that respect: his beauty will last forever (“Thy eternal summer shall not fade...”) and never die. In the couplet, the speaker explains how the beloved’s beauty will accomplish this feat, and not perish because it is preserved in the poem, which will last forever; it will live “as long as men can breathe or eyes can see.”

On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively shown through the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which affects a pause.An important theme of the sonnet is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

In comparison modern day poetry has more stages of love. Love is not just a mere emotion that should be won, but an action that’s expressed. For example in the poem ‘recitative’ the writer refers to love as an ‘aria’ a simplistic but expressive melody that eventually disappears in a music piece. Recitative is a poem focused on young passionate love, as the speaker mentions their love making is likened to a melody stating that their ‘upstairs neighbours had to keep dropping something down the hall’ due to the loud love noises they were making. A.E Stallings uses poetic techniques such as juxtaposition ‘in arias of love and death’ to show a parallel link between what love is and what love can do. ‘Our nerves were frayed like ravelled sleeves’ is another link between sexual love and the first time of making love. The entire theme of the poem is love, not the love that is experienced after a long period of time, but first time love. Not love that is expressed through appearance but love that is felt. It goes to show just how much love has progressed through the years becoming not just the winning of hearts but the love experienced by two people. Alisha allman

The presentation of love in John Donne's poetry and 'The Great Gatsby'

Donne’s presentation of love in ‘The Sun Rising’ is demonstrated through the use of his metaphysical conceit. The conceit focuses on  the sun and how it interrupts his love for his lady.  Donne treats the sun as a person, but also as an unwelcome intruder. ‘ Unruly sun, why dost thou  thus [..] call on us? ‘ expresses his frustration  that there time together could be over. Donne believes love to be more powerful and important than the sun.  ‘I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink’, here Donne illustrates how love is above all. He highlights the effects that love can have over you, he suggests that he is stronger and more powerful than the sun due to his love. There is a shift from use of language from ‘I’ and ‘She’ to the use of the word ‘us’ which highlights how love unites two people together. This is a very traditional view of love and its effects.


In ‘The Anniversary’ Donne accentuates how love is timeless. Donne discusses a shift in time and everything growing older and breaking away, however he does not believe his love to not ‘decay’. Donne uses hyperbolic language to highlight his love being eternal. ‘Running but never runs away’ suggests that  their love is always increasing. It is moving and isn’t static, however it will never leave.  Again Donne suggests the idea that love is strong enough to surpass nature.  It is a natural occurrence for things to decay over time, however Donne believes his love to ‘keep his fist, last, everlasting day.’
Donne then continues with this theme of love’s power over nature by suggesting that not even death can keep them apart. ‘When bodies to their graves,  souls from their graves remove.’ Donne shows his undying passion for his love, and how their bodies may be cold and not functioning, there may be separated physically, however their souls will live on to love one another. His final message of the poem is that love can elevate you . It provides you with power to ‘reign’ over each other like ‘kings’.


In ‘The Great Gatsby’ love is something which in comparison to Donne’s poetry is demoralized. Although the book is written from one perspective, the ideas of love and marriage are evident. The whole book is based around Gatsby and his love for Daisy, which he believes to be true. However love is arguably flawed in the novel. Affairs are frequent in the story and almost normalized. Donne would argue that this is not how love should be. There is a large contrast between the presentation of love in Donne’s poetry and Fitzgerald’s presentation of love, traditional vs. modern. During the time the novel was written there was a very care free attitude within society, this may have lead to the dysfunction of the traditional idea of love. Some may disagree that Gatsby was in love with Daisy, it could have been more of a fascination or obsession with the idea of her. Love is highly replaced with lust in Gatsby which demonstrates Fitzgerald’s harsh views on love and the reality behind it.


Love in Donne’s poetry is endless. He writes intimately allowing the reader to view how he feels, and the power which comes from falling in true love. However Fitzgerald may argue with Donne’s unrealistic perception of love. ‘The Great Gatsby’ shows how love can be wonderful yet destructive, and that not every love is timeless.

Hasna Maliq

#haveabanana

Comparisons of Love

In the great Gatsby, love seems to be all over the place. Everyone in the book seems to be at different stages of love and types of love. Gatsby is shown as having an obsessive love, were all he does is think about Daisy, and he wants to relive the past. Daisy is shown as having a superficial love and materialistic love, were it seems that she isn’t in love with him but is in love with what he has and what he owns. “I’ve never seen so many shirts” As for Tom, he seems to have a forced upon love as he appeals to society’s expectations even though he isn’t truly in love. I think that the only person in the novel who has a true love is Gatsby, as all he ever can do is think of Daisy and is just deeply madly in love with her. In the poem The sun rising it is very much similar to the Love Gatsby has for Daisy. In this poem, we seem that he adores her and thinks everything of her as does Gatsby. It talks of how their love will last forever, and this is also were Gatsby is misguided as there love does not last forever and that his living in the past cannot regenerate for the now as she does not love him back. In The Anniversary it shows how that they have been going together for a year and that their “Love hath no decay”. This is the problem with Gatsby as he thinks the same way and that no matter who she is with or how long they have been apart love is still there.

I believe that these two poems and the novel all use Hyperbole as they are great exaggerations of love. In the sun rising he says that sun rules and that they must do what they say. But by the end he states that sun should do what he says. As for the Aniversary it is also has the ruling quality with statements such as “second year of their rein” and that their love makes them kings “here upon earth we’re Kings” Also in Gatsby there is a power and ruling quality to it were Gatsby believes that they can do what they like because of his wealth, and that they can go anywhere and do anything.

In Donnes the sun rising, it refers to the universe and space, and that really as vast as the universe is there love is just as big if not bigger. He says that his partner is so beautiful that her eyes would blind the sun, and also when they are in the room together it is like the centre of the universe. That everything revolves around it. His enemy is the sun as it is this that defines there day and how long they can be with each other. Also as much as the sun blinds him he will not close his eyes else he will not see his love. He goes onto say that nothing in the world is as good as her. For Gatsby this is similar as he would give his all to be with her, and if that means wealth to buy her then he thought so be it.

In the anniversary, the rhythmic structure is in rhyming couplets to show there love, as in two people. It talks of time, and that there love lasts longer than time as it over comes nature. And that if one of them dies there love will still live on. As for daisy she does not see this as she is drawn to materialism not love. What a bitch.

Compare the presentation of Donne's and Fitzgerald's presentation of loveeeeee.

Donne and Fitzgerald are well known for their outstanding ability to produce the various formations love can come in. Both from different eras, Donne takes a more traditional approach to love. Unlike Fitzgerald, Donne's sonnets were a method of courting a lover in the 17th century, a more secretive, lustful portrayal of love. Whereas, Fitzgerald conveys love taking place in the Prohibition era also known as the 'Jazz age'. Fitzgerald uses this to make reference to how love survives under the influence of social status, the American dream, idealism and the struggles of economic instability. Thus, taking into consideration these factors, Fitzgerald urges readers to question whether the love expressed is true or in fact, artificial.

Donne expresses love as dominant and something which cannot be over-taken, as he uses a metaphor to describe the ‘sun’ as a ‘busy old fool’. This infers the ‘sun’ is aged, undermining the ‘suns’ natural power to disturb him and his lover. By doing this, Donne educates readers of the lovers ultimate power to ignore the ‘suns’ disruption  affirming the idea that the almighty force of the sun is powerless, in comparison to their love. This idea is reinforced as Donne refers to his love as ‘Both th’ Indias spice and mine’. By incorporating an exotic location and rare, cherished ‘spices’, Donne allows readers to understand how precious his love is to him. This makes readers develop admiration for how unique he perceives his love to be, which is exemplified further as he makes the bold comparison between ‘spices’ and his beloved. Also, by Donne labeling his lover as ‘mine’, this infers how eager Donne is to win his lovers hand and become united. As the poem progresses, Donne is keen to depict how love is his core focus as ‘the bed thy center is, these walls thy sphere’. By using this comparison  Donne portrays how that everything beyond the ‘walls’ in the physical world is minuscule  when weighed up with his love. This is extended further as by Donne explaining that ‘thy sphere’ is in fact subject to their love, urging readers to feel a sense of appreciation for their untouchable bond.

Likewise, in The Anniversary  Donne displays love as timeless. This is depicted as Donne explains although ‘the sun itself, makes times, as they pass’, their love will not change with time. This infers a sense of longevity and strength in their relationship, as it is able to sustain ‘times, as they pass’. This makes readers feel hopeful for the length of their love and how its proven to even surpass nature, the almighty ‘sun’. Also, Donne is able to inject more hope into readers as he ensures them  ‘our love hath no decay’. By using this hyperbole, Donne helps confirm that his love is eternal as it will never ‘decay’, no matter how much ‘time’ will ‘pass’. In addition, this exaggeration informs readers of the extent Donne will go to pursue  not just his love, but ‘our love’. As the poem progress, Donne's love is portrayed to maintain vitality as he outlines that even when their ‘bodies’ are rested in their ‘graves’ their ‘souls from their graves remove’. By expressing their ‘souls’ will still be in unity once they are physically dead, this amplify's Donne's love. The subject of the ‘souls’ enables readers to understand his ‘love’ is seen more as a connection of the minds, than physical attraction. This may be a comment on how genuine love is more than characteristics, geared towards individuals who are compatible mentally.

In contrast, Fitzgerald expresses love as something with no emotional or intellectual substance. Through the character of Daisy, Fitzgerald communicates how ‘her voice’ was ‘full of money’. This enables readers to understand Daisy’s shallow ‘money’ motive, as she’s driven towards Tom rather than the faithful Gatsby. This is depicted further as even as Gatsby makes all his efforts to impress and lur Daisy, she merely responds with ‘ive never seen such beautiful shirts before’. This weak response and instant reference to ‘shirts’ re-affirms the idea that she is drawn towards materialistic goods and is purely distracted by her artificial world. By doing this, readers are made to feel angered by Daisy's wealth driven motive and how depth-less she really is. Whereas, Fitzgerald conveys Gatsby as pre-occupied with the idea of love, rather than Daisy herself. Gatsby is shown blinded as he assures Nick ‘you can’t repeat the past?, why of course you can!’. This statement educates readers of how far distracted Gatsby is of ‘repeating’ the ‘past’, he is unaware of the superficiality of Daisy in the present. By Gatsby being absorbed into the past, readers are urged to evoke sympathy for his ignorance of his current position and helplessness to change it.

Furthermore, Donne's and Fitzgerald's portrayal of love is similar and dissimilar in various ways. Both Donne and Fitzgerald comment on how love can be eternal, as Donne displays its ruling and cannot be over-taken. This is similar in the Fitzgerald's ‘Great Gatsby’ as Gatsby fights to his dying day to pursue Daisy in order to rekindle their love. Although, through characters such as Daisy, Fitzgerald expresses how love can have no substance as its influenced by other factors such as money. Whereas, Donne’s motive seems clear throughout as he perseveres to impress and compliment his love. This is simply for a return of pure love, rather than materialistic gain. Although, it could be that Donne's method is simply a more tactful, intellectual way of alluring his love, in comparison to Daisy who outrightidly marry’s Tom. This may be questioning whether any love is real, as other factors begin to come into consideration, which can in effect, influence the characters decision.

Alsy! :DDDDD

Presentation of love in the Great Gatsby and John Donne’s poetry

John Donne, a cool guy around in the 16^th and 17^th century wrote a couple of well famous love poems of today. The Sun Rising and The Anniversary are what I’m going to delve into here.

Just a bit about the man himself, Mr. Donne was a real man in my books. He went against all social norms due to true love and the empowering emotion he felt for a certain Anne Moore which lead him to lose everything he had as she turned out to be his employers niece!!!!! And back in those days acts such as this were not acceptable. 

 Mr Donne, looking rather ravishing 

I feel that Donne’s love for Anne lead him to write two very successful poems.

The Sun Rising being one of them. Whilst reading this poem it was evident that there was a lot of exaggeration used, however, the way in which Donne uses it makes the poem what it is as we are able to understand how much he really loves Anne. By creating a conceit within this poem using the sun, Donne enables us to read the poem and follow his feelings of the sun. The first stanza in summary relates to the Sun waking up Donne and his lover and he wishes it would go away and leave them alone. “Busy old fool,” the first line and use of language sets off the idea that the sun is bothering them and its as if Donne is questioning the sun and why they have to be ruled by it. Immediately the reader is hit with a strong whiff of personification. As the poem goes on we see Donne’s representation of love being something special and sacred. Donne is basically stating that everything precious in the world is there with him and no “Indian spice and mine” will come close to how amazing his girl is, baring in mind back in those days Indian spice and metals were very precious. When reading this poem I personally got a sense of challenge as it feels like Donne is questioning the sun and challenging it as he doesn't understand why it behaves the way it does “thy beams so reverend and strong, Why shouldst thou think?”. There is the essence of  hatred as Donne doesn't seem to understand why the sun is as great as it thinks!

The last stanza reinforces the idea of competition as Donne outs the sun in its place “thou, sun, art half as happy as we.” Donne reaches the end of the poem by letting everyone know that the sun isn't half as happy as they are as the sun cant heat the whole world all the time, but they’re lasts all the way round the world unlike the sun and its beams. In conclusion, I would say this first number by Donne is a successful representation of true love. The use of hyperbole and metaphysical-ism makes the poem have a loving but smart and intellectual outlook onto love.  The sun... rising hehehehehehehe 

In the poem the anniversary, again Donne is able to show his idea of love and what it means really well.

The first stanza starts with the idea of eternal love and Donne highlights the idea of their love surpassing nature. I feel that Donne is very successful in getting the message across that their love is endless as he states that their love has ‘no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday.’ Donne is showing the reader that their love will always be there regardless of the time as their love is endless. Another effective technique Donne uses which shows his representation of love from the line “running it never runs from us away.” Here is Donne is creating a dynamic for love and giving it movement which makes this poem different from the Sun Rising. Donne is able to capture the emotions he feels as love takes over and show that their love is timeless and ‘hath no decay.’

The second stanza continues on with the conceit of eternal love as he moves to nature and the fact that even death will not part their love. Donne also introduces another conceit within this part of the poem as he sets the idea of their love being royal but also that their love is so special it surpasses royalty as royalty isn't as great as their love. Again there is a strong use of hyperbole as Donne gets the message across of how important his love actually is. He ends the second stanza with an empowering line in my opinion as he stats that “when bodies to their graves, souls from their graves remove.” Donne concludes the second stanza with the idea that even when they die, their souls will live on. This is something that makes Donne’s presentations of love so powerful as he doesn't confine love to an emotion within the body, he displays it as a feeling and sensation that stays with a persons soul until the end of time.

In the final stanza Donne changes the conceit once again to the idea of love having a ruling power and that “here upon earth” him and his partner are “kings.”  Love elevates them and Donne does a good job at showing how love can take them to places they want to be. For the first time in the poem Donne also refers to the potential dangers of love as he explains ‘treason to us, except on of us two.’ Here Donne is showing that there are no other people of factors that can get in the way of their, and the only dangers to their love are themselves.

Now onto Gatsby. An obvious difference in the presentation of love between Fitzgerald and Donne would be that The Great Gatsby is written in first person, so we are unable to know the true feelings of those in love such as Gatsby and Daisy.

Despite this, Fitzgerald is able to display the theme of love very successfully throughout the novel. Fitzgerald seems to make love something that only fools fall into. Love is expressed in many different ways throughout the book especially with different characters. Gatsby being a main character, I feel he is presented as someone in the novel who longs for the love of one person and effectively never gets it how he wants to. We see that Daisy and Gatsby have history and when they meet again after a longgggg period of time we see the sparks are still there. However, Gatsby seems blinded by Daisy’s love as I feel he is oblivious to the fact that Daisy is married and has her own child despite whether or not she’s happy. Daisy claims to love Gatsby yet when he dies she is no where to be seen. Effectively when we think about it, Gatsby died for Daisy as the love he had for her lead him to take the brunt of running over Myrtle and killing her. I feel Fitzgerald shows an artificial presentation of love within the play as there is not one character that is happy in love. Fitzgerald could also be showing that love didn't exist truly during that day and age.

Tom and Daisy’s relationship may show some kind of affection and loyalty, but we're not entirely sure if it's actually love.  And the same applies with Jordan and Nick as their love only lasts for a short period so was it lust of love? The only clear presentation of love is Gatsby who falls in love with Daisy but we do question whether he is in love with Daisy, or with a dream of Daisy. Using the characters within the novel we can see that Fitzgerald has quite a harsh view on love which raises the question as to whether he is trying to show love that is fake and artificial. There is no real love within the great Gatsby when you think about it long and hard but maybe this is the message Fitzgerald is trying to get through the whole time. 

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 Around the time The Great Gatsby was written, there were big movements happening for the women of the time. As women gained more independence and it was seemed more acceptable to work, Fitzgerald’s attitude to women reflect this in the novel. Also, Fitzgerald is writing this novel not long after the war, so the attitudes to love at the time are very different to how they are now. Love in The Great Gatsby is influenced by attitudes to love after the war which is important as the society in New York after the war would be very different to now.  Donne on the other hand is writing poetry around in the Elizabethan era, however, the fact that he believes in true love lead him to go against the norms of the time as it would have never been socially acceptable for him and Anne Moore to come together the way they did. All in all I feel that Donne's representation of love is more sentimental to him as it comes from his own personal experience but most importantly from his heart.

I get the feeling that in Donne’s poetry he is showing that love has no end. He states several times of love surpassing nature, surpassing time and overcoming death, so the reader clearly gets the message that love isn't restricted to anything, and that it can be anything you want it to be. This is what I personally love about Donne’s poetry, his freedom and ambiguity allows the reader to relate to the feelings he creates in his poem which makes it relate-able and easier to understand although relating it to love nowadays it may seem to be a cynical outlook onto love. Fitzgerald on the other hand I think shows a more realistic approach to what love actually is. I feel he is trying to show his reader that love doesn't always work out and to also highlight that not every love story has a happy ending. 

 Despicable Lea 

Compare Donne’s presentation of love with the presentation of love in ‘The Great Gatsby’. How is Donne’s presentation of love similar or different to Fitzgerald’s?

Donne’s presentation of love in ‘The Sun Rising’ is reinforced in the language of the metaphysical conceit which expresses the depths of his love. Donne and his beloved wake up together, and Donne fears that someone will walk in on them; the unwelcome intruder is the sun that Donne treats as a person. “Busy old fool, unruly sun”, sets up the conceit. In the poem, though, Donne and his much-loved feel right at home: there's no chance either of them will go anywhere, because their love has placed them where they belong, and everything else must reorient itself around them. It follows that Donne is the master of the house; the sun, as a guest, should respect and obey him. Donne therefore reverses the conceit: having likened the sun to a person, he now gives a person—himself—the powers of the sun: “I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink”. The sun, having been shown the door, now gets asked to remain. The pronouns "I" and "she" disappear, leaving only "us" and "we"; thus combined, the lovers become the whole Earth, and since the sun's job is to warm the Earth, it ought to stay where the lovers are, and orbit them.

In ‘The Anniversary’, Donne claims the only thing not subject to “decay” is the love that he and the object of his affections share, suggesting love surpasses nature. The presentation of love reinforces their passion has “no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday” and is therefore timeless, beyond the reach of mortality. The first stanza is hyperbolic of eternal, everlasting love arguing for the constancy of their love, rather than a love that grows over time. While it does not decay, it also does not increase; he is satisfied with it. There is no “tomorrow” or “yesterday,” and the “first” and “last” day are kept all the same. Both are solid in their mutual love. Their love will live on in their souls, and these souls will be reunited after their bodies are moved to their graves. The final stanza points out that while they remain on earth, they are in the special realm of a steady love which is available to “none but we.” The stanza places the lovers directly in the seat of sovereignty in a kingdom made of their love, subject to no one but each other. A conceit is formed with a monarch ruling, and this being the second year of “reign”, suggesting love is prevailing. Similarly to ‘The Sun Rising’ love is portrayed as an elevating force, empowering them from being normal people.

In the novel, only fools are depicted to fall in love, and the biggest fool in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is deemed to be Jay Gatsby. It's Gatsby who falls in love, but whether he is in love with Daisy, or an idolized dream of her, is a central question raised from the novel. Moreover, it could be that he is in love with the idea of being in love, instead. Fitzgerald, as well, stresses the concept of true love always coming with destruction and violence. Additionally, all of the relationships in the novel fail because they are not based on love, but on materialism. Fitzgerald’s presentation of love in ‘The Great Gatsby’ is artificial. 1920’s America was a country where moral values were decaying and money was of more importance. Correspondingly, when Donne was writing during the Elizabethan age, money became the basis on which society was run rather than simply rank and status, and it became possible for those not born into the nobility to quickly rise to powerful positions.

Donne’s and Fitzgerald’s presentation of love are similar in terms of how romantic love is concentrated upon, however not only does Fitzgerald concentrate on romantic love, he focuses on parental love too. Fitzgerald uses an involved unreliable narrator who avoids commitment in love and is cynical about parental love of Daisy and Henry Gatz. By contrast, Donne on the one hand, views love as fundamental and more real than the basic realities of time, which gives a sense of a very positive attitude towards love. However, it could also be read that the poem reflects the poet's expression of joy in his possession of his beloved; there is certainly a sense of a possessive pride in the woman whom he has acquired which highlights an attitude to love known as ‘courtly love’.

The language used in ‘The Great Gatsby’ reveals the ambivalence of Nick’s attitudes. He uses complimentary language to describe Gatsby’s feeling for Daisy (“value, “bought luxury”) but he also uses language of romance (“blossomed”, “incarnation”, “ripe mystery”). Similarly, the language of Donne’s poetry is filled with romance, highlighting the significance of love. Normal everyday activities such as those pursued by the “late school boys and sour prentices” are seen as ordinary and unimportant compared to the greatness of love. This poem truly reflects an exploration of the importance of love for all human existence.
The structure of the poems pervade with mention to his beloved throughout. Donne’s love for his beloved was sincere and heartfelt, suggested in “souls where nothing dwells but love” from ‘The Anniversary’. A reference to "souls" reinforces the spirited, deep-rooted nature forming this love.

Although Donne believes that love is the most important thing in the world, he also sees the necessity for this love to be real and actual, not a distant idealized love as was found in other poetry of his time. In comparison, Daisy admits to Gatsby “I did love him (Tom) once- but I loved you too”. Readers are left questioning whether Daisy appears insincere and incapable of love or if she has a realistic understanding of love, similar to some readers’ perceptions of Donne’s love, due to his continuous, hyperbolic phrases, using dynamic imagery.

Attitudes to women in 1920’s America influences Fitzgerald’s presentation of love as does the significance and influence of war on attitudes to love which is important, considering Fitzgerald is writing about New York society shortly after the First World War. On the other hand, Donne’s poems, written during the Elizabethan Age may reflect Donne's relationship with his wife, Anne Moore. The poems can certainly be read as reflecting a progression in Donne’s feelings, but the poems as a whole express the conflicting attitudes that characterize the full experience of love.

Donne’s attitude to love can be seen as ironic and cynical, especially regarding love and human motives. While clearly on the surface, Donne's poems can be read as glorious verses of love, as a modern reader we question the silencing of the woman and the male exultation during his conquest. However, Fitzgerald is equally, if so more, cynical; all his characters “bruise hearts”. Yet, the message of the novel is clear, that love should always be selfless.

M Chacko

Heartbreak; Clenched soul (Pablo Neruda) & Sonnet 139.

In his poem clenched soul, Pablo Neruda expresses his deepest emotion of grief, portraying despair and heartbreak following the loss of a loved one. Neruda faces intense thoughts of his past, where he expresses his feelings in his writing using techniques such as metaphorical language and similes. He is having delusional thoughts as he thinks that he and his loved one are walking together ‘’ hand in hand’’. He also uses the colour blue; ‘’blue night’’ & ‘’Blue sweater’’ to emphasize on the sorrow and inner emotion which he feels. He reminisces on past happy memories, however he describes these memories ‘’burned’’ like a ‘’coin in my hand.’’ This simile highlights the pain he feels as a result of her absence, and just the thought of these memories signifies the intense rawness which is inflicted upon him. Neruda in addition uses rhetorical questions where he seeks some answers in his emotions and wonders why she left him; perhaps because she found someone else in her life, ‘’Who else was there?’’

Shakespeare’s Sonnet 139, also emphasizes on heartache. However his mistress hasn’t left him, but humiliates him by cheating on him. The speaker displays a feeling of struggle and heartbreak as she has concealed him from the truth, surrounding the relationship with secrecy. ‘’Wound me...with thy tongue’’; here he explains that he would rather hear the truth coming from her instead of him having to confront her. He shows a sense of jealousy and does not like the fact that she is allowing herself to other men and the looks she gives other men, ‘’her pretty looks have been mine enemies.’’ In the second line, ‘’...thy unkindness lays upon my heart’’ he states that her betrayal and ‘’unkindness’’ is oppressing him causing him to feel heartache and emotional damage. The speaker also implies that she has ‘’power’’ over him, to an extent where she is powerful enough to control his emotions, let alone cheat on him and break his heart. Throughout the sonnet, the speaker expresses his misery as a battle which he faces against his inner emotions and his mistress. However he has already lost this battle as he says ‘’o’erpressed defence can bide?’’ Her dishonesty has overburdened him, and he feels as if he is losing this battle which he faces. At the end of the poem, the speaker indicates that he’s been put through a great deal of mental anguish and that he has already been killed inside, she might as well finish him off by confessing her deceitful actions to him.  

Although the women in the poems act differently towards the speakers, the way they have shown their love to their men is still the same. Love is usually shown to give a happy and warm feeling giving a sense of value and emotional fulfillment, however the speaker in Sonnet 139 , and Nerdua portrays love negatively feeling agonized, and a sense of emotional discomfort. Furthermore this also shows that the outcomes of being in love are not always positive. They can also have distressing and painful effects as demonstrated by ‘Clenched Soul’ and ‘Sonnet 139’

tahsin.