The Romantic period was a period that dedicated itself to
romanticism, an era that influenced poets such as William Wordsworth, John
Keats Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. Poetry had started to contain more
emotion and fascination with romance.
Khalil Gibran,
another poet of the Romantic era wrote a poem 'on love'.
Khalil
Gibran on Love
When love
beckons to you, follow him,
Though his
ways are hard and steep.
And when his
wings enfold you yield to him,
Though the
sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.
And when he
speaks to you believe in him,
Though his
voice may shatter your dreams
as the north wind lays waste the garden.
For even as
love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he
for your pruning.
Even as he
ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the
sun,
So shall he
descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.
Like sheaves
of corn he gathers you unto himself.
He threshes
you to make you naked.
He sifts you
to free you from your husks.
He grinds
you to whiteness.
He kneads
you until you are pliant;
And then he
assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for
God's sacred feast.
All these
things shall love do unto you that you
may know the secrets of your heart, and in that
knowledge become a fragment of Life's heart.
But if in
your fear you would seek only love's peace and love's pleasure,
Then it is
better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love's
threshing-floor,
Into the
seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep,
but not all of your tears.
Love gives
naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love
possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is
sufficient unto love.
When you
love you should not say,
"God is in my heart," but rather,
"I am in the heart of God."
And think
not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy,
directs your course.
Love has no
other desire but to fulfill itself.
But if you
love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:
To melt and
be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.
To know the
pain of too much tenderness.
To be
wounded by your own understanding of love;
And to bleed
willingly and joyfully.
To wake at
dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;
To rest at
the noon hour and meditate love's ecstasy;
To return
home at eventide with gratitude;
And then to
sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon
your lips.
Khalil
Gibran was born in Lebanon; he immigrated to the United States when he was
older to study Art and Literature in English and Arabic. His writing style
created a new Romantic movement in Arabic literature.
Gibran's poem 'on love' is
about the beauty of love. Khalil focuses in on the good and the bad about love.
He personifies love throughout the poem using the terms 'he' or 'him' whenever
making reference to it. 'When love beckons to you, follow him', 'and when his wings
enfold you yield to him'; in the first stance Gibran describes love to be like
a bird or winged creature of some sort. This reference to natural creations
links in with the naturalness of love.
Not only does Gibran personify love but he gives it a voice, one that holds
power over beings; 'and when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice
may shatter your dreams'.
The
poet concentrates on the realities of love as he says, 'for even as love crowns
you so shall he crucify'. The mention of 'God' later on in the poem and the use
of the word 'crucify' presents biblical references that combine religion and
love. Khalil regards love as something that unsheathes or unclothes you. It
breaks down and 'threshes' your outer shell and leaves you 'naked'. It 'sifts
you free from your husks' and 'all these things shall love do' to 'know the
secrets of your heart'. Gibran is blunt when he directs the message to people
of one needing to accept this disclosure if they are to find or accept love. He
then warns, 'if only in your fear you would seek love's peace and love's
pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness'. If you fear
what love can do, how bare it can leave you, how it can caress 'your tenderest
branches' yet also 'descend' you 'to your roots and shake them in their
clinging to the earth', then 'pass out of love's threshing'.
Khalil states that 'love
possesses' and 'love is sufficient' and if you start wanting other desires from
it then one should 'know the pain of too much tenderness' and 'be wounded' as
well as 'bleed willingly and joyfully'. This feeling of pain should be felt
until you 'return' and 'mediate love's ecstasy'.
Love 'directs your course’; you do not 'direct the course of love'.
Khalil
Gibran is about the truths of love rather than just the pretty side to love.
It's about two faces or sides and getting to know both of them. It's about
accepting the good as well as the bad because you cannot have only the good and
call that 'perfection'. Perfection is both the wonderful and dreadful. Gibran
portrays loving another to be like risk taking as it cracks open any shell of
protection. And if you are not willing to take the risk then why should you
bother to love.
Like Khalil Gibran's poem
about realities of love, William Shakespeare's sonnet 130 is similar as it
speaks of the realities of beauty and love. Though Gibran does not mock love,
both poets mention comparisons to nature. Both poets use different tactics,
Shakespeare satirises by means of producing the real truth whereas Gibran
merely speaks of the good and bad forces of love. Shakespeare is more indirect
as he focuses on love through beauty, and seeing what is really there. Whereas
Khalil Gibran is direct as his poem is ‘on love’.
Shakespeare offers his 'love as rare' and Gibran offers love to be 'for your
growth'. Shakespeare shows that false comparisons need not be made and Gibran
shows that love need not be feared.
iH
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