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Comparison of Two Love Poems

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Comparison of Two Love Poems
Comparison of two love poems
‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.’ is a poem written in the 19th century by a poet named Elizabeth Barret Brown. Assuming that this love sonnet was written from the poets point of view this poem is about how a lady loves her lover. The title suggests that this poet will list how she loves a certain person and in how many different ways and the poem does exactly that, Elizabeth also compares her love to things that it is not possible to live without. The language used in the title such as the word ‘thee’ instead of saying ‘you’ shows that modern day language will not be present.
‘Valentine’ is a poem written by Carol Ann Duffy and is also a love poem. This poem is very unique as normally when you think of the word ‘Valentine’ you imagine, roses, chocolates, cards and kisses whereas in this poem the persona tells a story in which she gives her lover an onion on Valentines Day. The comparison of an onion and her love is unusual but very legit as different aspects of an onion like the way a person cries when one is cut is very similar to how you can shed tears when you are in love.
‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ is the title of the poem by Elizabeth and is also the first line of this passionate love sonnet. Throughout this poem the author uses anaphora which is when an arrangement of words are repeated at the beginning of verses or lines in this case when ‘I love thee’ is repeated eight times.
‘I love thee to the depth and breadth and height’ by using repetition, this creates emphasis on the word ‘and’ it also gives the impression of a mini list, listing how deep her love is. When she refers to her ‘soul’ it shows her love is spiritual.
‘My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight’, this line shows that she believes she is spiritually connected with her lover as when she can’t physically see him her soul sill manages to find him.
‘I love thee to the level of everyday’s’ shows that she doesn’t just love him

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