Love in Lawrences, Byrons, Brownings, Sotos Poems

Table of Contents

Introduction
Ideal Love
Destructive Love
Power of Love
References

Introduction

Describing love is a challenging task. It requires maneuvering between the clichés that have worn out their welcome and the convoluted attempts at rendering the essence of affection. In their poems, Lawrence, Byron, Browning, and Soto view love as the experience that has huge power. Whether this power is depicted as destructive or creative, it remains the emotional core of the relationships and is viewed as a mysterious element.

Ideal Love

Oranges by Soto and She walks in beauty by Byron can be considered prime examples of ideal love. Though the authors describe entirely different emotions, each romanticizes the experience to the point where it becomes ideal in its purity and innocence. Soto creates the impression of ideal love by focusing on the naïve experience of two children: Touched her shoulder, and led/Her down the street (Soto, n.d., p. 1). The innocence of the image leaps off the pages, therefore, creating the impression of ideal love. Similarly, She walks in beauty describes the concept of ideal love as the narrator portrays his love interest as an ideal human being with no flaws whatsoever: The smiles that win, the tints that glow (Byron, n.d.).

Destructive Love

The horse dealers daughter, in turn, portrays destructive love: I feel Im horrible to you (Lawrence, 2008, p. 292). The narrator describes the passion that consumes the protagonist entirely. As a result, Mable torments herself and the person she loves. Similarly, the description of the lost saints in How do I love thee? (Browning, n.d.) shows that the author views love as destructive.

Power of Love

Though each of the works portrays love in a different light, all of them show that love has immense power. This power can be used for both good and bad. Therefore, what people actually do with their love is what defines them and their dignity.