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Band 6 EBB and GGB – Excellent Composition – Context Heavy
February 16, 2012
The universal conceptualisation of love is a subject of many a poet and writer throughout history. As such, each is relevant to their specific periods and their specific value systems. This can be seen in the text; “Sonnets from the Portuguese” by Elizabeth Barret Browning, where Browning explores a Romantic vision of love and romance through the abandonment of the Petrachan sonnet from. Likewise, the text “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the turmoils of love in the 1920’s; a world obsessed with materialism and hedonism. Thus through the ways in which each author produces a narrative relevant to the values and contexts of their particular contemporaries we are able to discern how the theme of the transformative power of love and spirituality continues to be avid topics of literature today.
In Sonnet 1, Browning conveys the Romantic idea of love and spirituality against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. Her Greco-allusion “How Theocractes had sung…” references the 3rd century BC Greek pastoral poet – mourning the lost ‘art’ of renaissance passion. The aural metaphor reflects how poetry as “a craft,” had been lost – the past tense reinforcing that love as spiritual and not materialistic is neglected by Victorian culture. This is echoed in the lines: “of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years”, in which Browning utilizes assonance to accentuate the repetition of “years”; rhymed in the line, “through my tears” to emphasize the Victorian’s shifting focus of love to a convention of marriage that relies upon dowries and status. The enjambment, “who by turns had flung / A shadow across me” is a metaphor illustrating her isolation and sadness in this context – the literal shadow cast
English Resource Material
Home
Hurstville
Past Essays and HSC Resources
Strathfield
Testimonials
Providing a Method to Learning
Band 6 EBB and GGB – Excellent Composition – Context Heavy
February 16, 2012
The universal conceptualisation of love is a subject of many a poet and writer throughout history. As such, each is relevant to their specific periods and their specific value systems. This can be seen in the text; “Sonnets from the Portuguese” by Elizabeth Barret Browning, where Browning explores a Romantic vision of love and romance through the abandonment of the Petrachan sonnet from. Likewise, the text “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, explores the turmoils of love in the 1920’s; a world obsessed with materialism and hedonism. Thus through the ways in which each author produces a narrative relevant to the values and contexts of their particular contemporaries we are able to discern how the theme of the transformative power of love and spirituality continues to be avid topics of literature today.
In Sonnet 1, Browning conveys the Romantic idea of love and spirituality against the prudish rationalism of the Victorian era. Her Greco-allusion “How Theocractes had sung…” references the 3rd century BC Greek pastoral poet – mourning the lost ‘art’ of renaissance passion. The aural metaphor reflects how poetry as “a craft,” had been lost – the past tense reinforcing that love as spiritual and not materialistic is neglected by Victorian culture. This is echoed in the lines: “of the sweet years, the dear and wished for years”, in which Browning utilizes assonance to accentuate the repetition of “years”; rhymed in the line, “through my tears” to emphasize the Victorian’s shifting focus of love to a convention of marriage that relies upon dowries and status. The enjambment, “who by turns had flung / A shadow across me” is a metaphor illustrating her isolation and sadness in this context – the literal shadow cast