How Do The Authors Of "Porphyria's Lover", "Sonnet 130" And "Valentine" Convey Unusual Feelings About Love?
The poems “Porphyria’s Lover”, “Sonnet 130” and “Valentine” have all been used to convey unusual feelings about love. These three poems are unique in their field as they are nothing like traditional love poems; however they still convey a similar feeling of passion.
“Porpyhria’s Lover” written by Robert Browning around 1835, uses techniques such as pathetic fallacy to portray a dark and dismal setting which sets the scene for events to come during the poem. This contrasts to “Valentine” written by Carol Ann Duffy during the twentieth century, because she attempts to create a picture in your mind by the use of an extended metaphor, this is shown in the form of an onion. This poem contradicts nearly all other love poems because the others describe something romantic; an onion is not considered romantic because it can make you cry etc.
In a way this is similar to “Sonnet 130” written by William Shakespeare published approximately in the year 1610, because the two poems both create a humorous tone. A technique used by William Shakespeare is the subversion of various insults to compliments; however it is only in the last 2 sentences that you discover this. This poem is unusual because it creates an uninviting image for you to picture in your mind of the lady with the wiry black hair etc. unlike traditional love poetry.
However, neither “Sonnet 130” nor “Valentine” are half as unusual as “Porphyria’s lover”, because this poem includes a murder in its midst. Murder is not commonly associated with love at all, more hatred and violence and to have this total contrast included in a love poem makes it extremely unusual.
Throughout this essay I shall be showing how the poets: Robert Browning, William Shakespeare and Carol Ann Duffy convey unusual feelings about love in their poetry.
“Porphyria’s Lover” opens by setting the scene - it is raining, and a storm is raging outside and with it establishes the tone of the action that follows. The storm is described in...
View Full Essay