Analysis Since There's No Help

Reader-Response Criticism The sonnet “Since There's No Help” is a typical example of Michael Drayton's work, yet it has been considered the one sonnet responsible for plucking Drayton from the general obscurity of Elizabethan sonnet writers. Many are of the opinion it was his one and only sonnet that reached the highest level of poetic feeling and allowed the audience to suffer alongside the writer. This poem is written in traditional Shakespearian sonnet form, consisting of fourteen lines of iambic pentameter. The rhyme scheme is also consistent of a Shakespearean sonnet, yet some are of the opinion that this sonnet can be split into the traditional three quatrains and a rhyming couplet, as with other Shakespearean sonnets. However,
it is not the pentameter or the rhyming which gives this sonnet its raw emotions, but the words poured from the author’s heart that resonate in the soul of the reader. When love dies and we are forced to say good bye to one we thought would be there forever the pain can be unbearable, but in some ways a relief. Michael Drayton captures both of those feelings and so many others in this heart wrenching, beautiful sonnet. In the opening lines we find the speaker in the mists of the end of an intimate relationship. As we have all been there, we feel for this young man who tries to play it off as if he is glad the relationship is finally over. First he states that he is done and the girl will get no more from him. Then he declares with all his heart that he is glad this is over as if the strain of putting up with her has become too much and this ending is a relief. He even tries to blow it off, “let us kiss and part” (1) as if to say ‘Fine, whatever;’ he does not care if the relationship ends. All he wants is his freedom and the ability to pursue another without the chains of dying relationship slowing him down. “It is true that readers’ empathy for situations depicted in fiction may be enhanced by the chance relevance of particular historical, economic, cultural, or social circumstances, categorical identity weakly correlates with character identification and an ethics of compassion” (Keen, 2011, p. 302). Everyone has had those moments at the end of a relationship we thought was special, where we try to act like we never cared, but like our author we try to hide the pain we feel. We lie to ourselves and our former lover that we do not care that this is over because greener pastures await us and we are better off being single. In the second stanza we see that he is not really happy with this outcome, instead he is trying to convince himself that he wants this as well. The author speaks as if a simple hand shake signals the barter agreed upon and everything is done. Poof! You’re free of your emotional bonds and they never will bother you again. “The reader’s prior knowledge and experience is nevertheless paramount in.. reading…. the reader focuses on the quality of emotions, ideals, situations and characters and formulates the response on the basis thereof “ (Demeny, 2012 p.53). Everyone remembers running into ‘The Ex’ for the first time at a party and it is never easy. But for our author, it will be a breeze. He is just going to pretend it never happened. They should never let it be “seen in either of our brows” (7) that they once a “former love retain” (8). They should never show any emotion or affection to each other in public. Instead it will be a simple musing pursued in back of the mind; simply, we dated, but no more and that is that. He speaks these lines bitterly and with anger at the thought of running into her in a social setting after her breaking his heart. He finds her callous and seems angry that she can just cast aside this love for someone else. Who among us has not felt the burning, righteous anger of the jilted lover? What makes them so special that you would choose them over love? No one should just be cast aside for another, but we have all tried to play it cool or even plan for that first fateful encounter afterwards. In the third stanza our author notes, in great detail, the death of their love.
We, the reader, witness the final moments of this dying love, noting our author suffers the same fate many of us have when cast aside by a careless lover. “Readers persisting in regarding characters as more human than substantial hypothetical beings, more like friends or neighbors” give the sonnet a more powerful, emotional reading. (Keen, 2011, p. 295). We attest to the last gasp of their love as it dies. We remember painfully the moment we watched our own passion for another shudder with a death rattle. The author is helpless as he watches the faith and hope he had in their relationship fail him, falling short in his plan for happiness. He cannot pretend this is just for the best, that this ending will bring something anew. She has destroyed his innocence of love, ripping off his blinders and shown him the cruel death of love. Here we finally see our speaker’s true feelings of this ending relationship. He loves her, he wants this love to live and grow. The ending of this affair is too much for him and he feels, like many of us have, that he himself is dying with this
relationship. In the final couplet, we see the author still hopes against hope that his love will regret her actions and perhaps change her mind.
It is never too late because just one little word from her would bring his love for her back from the dead. We have all wanted a past love to change their mind, to realize the stupidity of their mistake and beg us to take them back. The same is true for our poor author; he hopes against hope she will see that she still loves him. She will see that he is a better choice than another. His love for her will not be so easily cast aside and forgotten. “Thinking about the words, you’re already unavoidably beginning to think about the poem as a whole and your own response to it” (Lynn, 2011, p.73). Many a reader can relate to dreaming about ‘the one that got away’ and we all have loves that, even though there was a lot of pain, we wish had never ended the way they
did. In Michael Drayton’s emotional roller-coaster, “Since There’s no Help,” the author dares the reader to witness his heartache and emotional turmoil at the end of his relationship. The last kiss, the final friendly hug, the false promise of always staying good friends. The mood and the tone of this sonnet can only be described as bleak, melancholic and angry with a little shimmer of hope. This sonnet truly captures the waves of emotions that overtake one when losing a loved one who you assumed would never leave you. The heartbreak placed on displayed has been felt by so many others. At one time or another we have all witnessed or been victim of the callous lover who, without a glance backwards, tears out the heart of the one who truly loved them. We too have felt that combination of self-rationalization, the almost fierce “you get no more of me” (2) arrogance with the wild dream, the hope that somehow love might be revived and renewed. We want to be whole, to feel complete and loved, yet independent. We want to be able to shake hands, part as friends, and always be cordial to each other. Maybe we can, perhaps we are unable. But Drayton is right we all have that hope that dream, somehow love will conquer all. We just can't help it.