William Butler Yeats’ “Never Give All The Heart” is about vulnerability, love, and blame. It warns of both the fickleness of women and that if one loves in an overbearing manner it will actually be detrimental. Yeats’ personal inspiration for the poem was likely Maud Gonne, a woman whom he proposed to four times, who rejected him all four times and then proceeded to marry someone else. The poem begins in a manner suggestive of a lover scorned. Yeats talks about how passionate women, which at this point in time is not necessarily a compliment, don’t consider love that is a sure thing worth their time and energy. Essentially it is a poetized version of the “Nice guys finish last” argument, along with the idea that people only desire what …show more content…
Yeats also uses the word dumb, which in context likely means unable to speak, but also carries a connotation of being incapable of intelligent thought. Entering a heart into the game of love will damage the heart’s owner on multiple levels. Yeats then references himself, as he who has already given his heart up to the game and lost miserably. He knows the pain and the loss that giving up one’s heart to someone who does not want the whole heart brings. In fact, he was later quoted as saying, “[about his first marriage proposal] that was when the troubling in my life began.” He gave his whole heart to this woman and she didn’t want it. Now, to his credit, Yeats isn’t saying giving any heart is terrible. He is simply stating that giving the entirety of one’s heart is more likely to come off as overeager and overbearing than romantic. Towards the end of the poem, he isn’t blaming the woman as much, he is accepting the gamble that love is.
The structure of this poem is rather notable. It mimics the structure of a Clare sonnet, fourteen lines, iambic pentameter, AABBCCDDEEFFGG rhyme scheme. Both Italian and Shakespearean sonnets tended to be love poems. However, the Clare sonnet doesn’t quite fit properly with either, it’s a touch more simplistic in nature, which lends this poem something akin to irony. This poem isn’t simply a love poem, it’s poem about the frustration of love along with being a cautionary tale. It has a more
In many ways, this poem is unusual in its subject. It deters in several ways from a typical aubade, such as Donne's "The Sun Rising" or the internal aubade introducing the bird narrator in Chaucer's "Troilus and Criseyde." For this poem, it is important to note that rather than detailing the parting of lovers, this poem addresses a parting which has already taken place. The speaker is likely driving away from his love, having left her, and imagining her still asleep. The last line of the poem has a certain intimacy to it, that even though they are apart, in the speaker's mind they are still joined by this moment, as he seems to have an awareness or thoughtfulness regarding what she is doing as he moves further away. Also, the speaker in an aubade is usually discontented that he has to leave his love; this speaker is somehow consoled by the knowledge that a parting is never really a parting (his driving off is somehow symbolic of this.) It is also interesting to note that this aubade doesn't greet the sun; rather it mentions the moon instead.
By simply reading the title of the poem, one realizes that Yeats is giving out a warning to never love wholeheartedly. In the opening lines of the poem, “Never give all the heart, for love / Will hardly seem worth thinking of”, the speaker continues his warning.
“When You Are Old” is about the love of a man for a woman whom he had on a pedestal. He felt this woman was loved by many with a true and deep love and loved by others with a false love. He felt this woman was loved much like people today love celebrities. Yeats wrote about this woman as though he knew her intimately. He asks her to “slowly read, and dream of the soft look, Your eyes had once and of their shadows deep” (Yeats). He wants her to remember how things were in her youth. He wants her to remember her dreams and think of how things were and how they may have been. Yeats is asking her to take her time and day dream about her glory days.
The speaker uses words such as “louring” (line 2), “deep deceit” (line 8), “grievous” (line 11) and “bale” (line 140. All of these words have sorrowful and despairing meanings to them which gives the whole poem an unhappy tone. The third and fourth lines discus that the speaker cannot even look at the beautiful face, which appears to grow more attractive daily, of the woman he loves. Moreover, the couplet tells the readers that the sorrow in the speaker’s eyes is there because of the pain he has felt due to his faulty relationship. The mouse that “lies aloof for fear of more mishap” (line 7) shows the misery felt by the speaker by using the words “aloof” and “mishap”. “Aloof” means to be stand-offish or reserved, which the speaker is because if he gets too close, he will be hurt again. “Mishap” means disaster or unfortune which altogether sounds miserable. Had the speaker used diction that was lighter or less depressed, the reader truly would not understand the misery the speaker has went through. The miserable diction depicts the deep wounds the speaker received from his love, shedding light to how much he really loved her and how bad she really hurt
The poem’s structure as a sonnet allows the speaker’s feelings of distrust and heartache to gradually manifest themselves as the poem’s plot progresses. Each quatrain develops and intensifies the speaker’s misery, giving the reader a deeper insight into his convoluted emotions. In the first quatrain, the speaker advises his former partner to not be surprised when she “see[s] him holding [his] louring head so low” (2). His refusal to look at her not only highlights his unhappiness but also establishes the gloomy tone of the poem. The speaker then uses the second and third quatrains to justify his remoteness; he explains how he feels betrayed by her and reveals how his distrust has led him
First, the poet uses metre, a style that emphasizes the use of a specific structure, which is an appropriate way of presenting poems with positive themes such as love. In this case, the poet achieves metre through the use of a uniform number of syllables in every line of the first stanza (10 syllables per line). This approach not only makes the poem memorable in recitation and listening but also relaxes the listener which is important in understanding the subject matter. Petrach uses a qualitative metre, which concentrates on the use of uniform syllabic arrangement. As a result, he creates an aesthetic euphony thus making the listener and the reciter to enjoy the presentation of the poem. The technique is appropriate in the presentation of a love sonnet. Equally, the first two stanzas have four lines each, but the last two stanzas have three lines each. This aspect aligns with the two perspectives presented in the poem, the first being his great affection for Laura, and the second is an expression of the pain he experiences as a result of the unreciprocated love. Furthermore, he has been unable to express his feelings to her, which compounds his pain evident in the words “I had love's tinder in my breast unburned, was it a wonder if it kindled there?” (Lines 8 – 9).
In Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love is Not All (Sonnet XXX),” the poem’s writer originally discredits the value of love, claiming that it is not essential because it does not support life; however, later Millay describes that love has some value.
Heartbreak can be defined as: overwhelming distress. When a person is heartbroken the deep emotions and stress they feel takes over their life to a point where, sometimes, you can’t function doing anything besides thinking of your own heartbreak. In the poem “Head, Heart,” written by Lydia Davis, it displays a very person conversation between the head and the heart during an emotional time. This poem is very universal, and very personal to almost all people. It is very unlikely that someone would read this poem and not relate to the emotions it conveys. This poem uses personification and menotomy for “head” and “heart” as if they are people. This poem means to show its readers what it’s like on the inside to be heartbroken by something.
The reader begins to wonder if it is actually just the man she is afraid to be in love with rather than the idea of love itself. According to her, the man sees her simply as a problem that he can solve with his wits and charm, suggesting that he would not be interested in her once she has dissolved in the heat of his charm. Perhaps she is aware that this man might not be a good choice for her, yet she cannot control her feelings for him. However, in the following lines, she expresses her own incapacity to survive and be happy, bringing the reader back to the theme she started the poem with. Despite being blown away by his acts of kindness time after time, she finds herself beyond recovery and asks the man to reconsider his intentions since she is a problem he might never be able to solve. Therefore, the second stanza shows the grave nature of the poet's
The structure of this poem is a sonnet and sonnets are supposed to be love poems. The poet talks about hate to introduce a sense of irony.
It is also reminiscent of a sonnet, often a love poem. The love in this poem is of a father who is trying to protect his son but who realises the futility of this. Every other line rhymes in this poem which has the effect of making the poem seem more intense as the rhyme is not overly obvious. It is also written in the first person which makes it seem so much more personal, “my son,” “I saw” and shows Scannal wanting to make the reader sympathies for the child. He reminds us in the last two lines our lives are exposed to physical and negative pain.
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Sonnet IV” follows many of the conventions of the traditional Petrarchan sonnet. It follows the traditional rhyming scheme and octet, sestet structure. However it challenges the conventions of the typical subject of the Italian sonnet, unrequited love. In the octet at the beginning of the poem Millay uses images that give a sense of transience and in the ending sestet of the sonnet she contrasts the sense of impermanence given earlier with the idea that the speaker cannot forget the smiles and words of their ex-lover. This contrast between permanence and transience illustrates Millay’s interest in a fugacious relationship with everlasting memories. After further analysis of Millay’s highly structured rhyming scheme which puts emphasis on the last words of each line. She uses these words to further express her interest in exploring impermanent relationships by using words that are associated with an end or death.
The text of the poem is also important for the reader to understand. In lines 1-4 of the poem, the reader can see that Leda is being attacked. It goes in to detail about her thighs being caressed. At this point the reader is starting to understand that there is some sexual images in the poem. Yeats’ captures the image with “wings beating still above the swaggering girl” and “her nape caught in his bill”. Yeats contrasts those images with the soft images of “her helpless breast upon his breast”. In lines 5-8, Yeats shows the image of rape by the force that “her fingers” can’t push the “feathered glory from her loosening thighs”. In lines 9-14, again Yeats is giving the reader a graphic image of the rape, but also alluding to the fall of the Greeks and expressing the power of Gods over humanity.
“Sonnet 130” written by William Shakespeare, is one of his most well known poems and can be analyzed and broken apart in great depth. The poem is written in fourteen lines which makes it a sonnet. Like all of Shakespeare’s sonnets the meter is iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme for “Sonnet 130” is ABAB CDCD EFEF GG. An overlaying theme for “Sonnet 130” is, “True love is based on how beautiful you find someone on the inside.” Shakespeare proves to have a great view on true love in this sonnet. He cares more about what’s on the inside rather than what’s on the outside. “Sonnet 130’s” theme can be proven by Shakespeare's use of poetic and literary devices, the tone and mood of the sonnet, and the motif of true love.
The fifth stanza describes the quality that Yeats came to see as at the very heart of civilized life: courtesy. By courtesy he understands a means of being in the world that would protect the best of human dignity, art and emotion. And in his prayer for his daughter he wishes that she will learn to survive with grace and dignity in a world turned horrific. He explains that many men have hopelessly loved beautiful women, and they thought that the women loved them as well but they did not.