Poem Theme: Love

Poems Themes: Love The poems “A Red, Red Rose,” “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love,” and “Come, My Celia” are all romance and love themes. The authors in these three poems symbolize compassion and honesty and portray powerful feelings for the reader to reading all their poems. Many people are able to relate easier with poems and ballets that relate with love and the fairytale that comes along with it. Each of these poems represent one theme but are all expressed very differently. The first one, “A Red, Red Rose”, shows strong everlasting love, the second, “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” shows the things that love could offer to everyone, and last but not least, “Come, My Celia” which shows to live in the moment of love and cherish it no matter how long it lasts. The first poem, "A Red, Red Rose" was composed by Robert Burns, a Scottish poet in 1794. This poem was one of the most famous love poems in the English language and it is still extremely well known today. The entire poems theme and expression is the speaker's powerful, undying love. Line after line, he explains his love to be lasting, strong, and very powerful. “A Red, Red Rose” is about a young man who is deeply in love and compares it to multiple beautiful and timeless things. In the beginning of the poem he explains his “love is like a red rose in springtime/ and like a melody/ thats sweetly play’d in tune.” This means that it is blooming, fresh and beautiful and that his love is a beautiful everlasting song. He continues by emphasizing his love by saying is love will continue till the seas go dry. Already half way through the poem you see how he uses certain situations that are nearly impossible to explain the theme of love he is trying to portray. As the poem goes on he proceeds his ballet of love by saying “And I will luve thee still, my dear,/ while the sands o' life shall run”. He describes his love for her to be undying and forever lasting. No matter where, no matter when, no matter how. His love for her will be timeless. Last but not least, the poet finishes his poem by saying “And fare thee weel, my only Luve,/ And fare thee weel a while!/And I will come again, my Luve,/ Tho' it were ten thousand mile” (Burns). This means no matter how far or how long it will take he will always come back to her because his love for her is everlasting. The author of this poem gives almost a fairy tale feeling to it by showing that the man is in everlasting love with her and will go to any measure to be with her no matter what the distance is. The second poem, “The Passionate Shepherd to his Love” was written by Christopher Marlowe an English poet 1599, six years after his death. The poem is about a young passionate shepherd attempting to convince a woman to go on, live with him, and enjoy a luxurious life with all the most beautiful things. He uses many different types of love to try a draw her in such as: landscape, nature, and materialistic things. He begins by describing the places, in a very romantic manner, where they could be together and spend the rest of their lives together. He continues to explain to her how they will be happy while they spend their time “sitting on the rocks/ watching the shepherds feed their flocks” as they listen to their surroundings. In the next three group of lines he tempts her with attractive gifts like, a bed of roses, a gown of the finest wool, and slippers with golden buckles and again repeats his offer which he made at the beginning of the poem. He concludes the poem by telling her that even though he is a shepherd he will make sure that she enjoys and lives a royal life style. He promises her food will be served on silver plates set on an ivory table and by reassuring her that every "May-morning" country youths shall dance and sing and entertain her if she agrees to "live with him and be his love.” Marlowe ends the poem very strongly,The shepherds' swains shall dance and sing/ For thy delight each May morning/ If these delights thy mind may move,/ then live with me and be my love” (Marlowe) The poet leaves the audience with no guarantee that the lady will find all the things the Shepherd has offered and a possibility that the Shepherd will be left disappointed or joyous. Last but not least my third poem, “Come, My Celia” was written by Ben Jonson an English poet. The general theme is the passage of time, and the need or desire to live with the person we love as much as we can, and as deeply as we can before our time is gone. The poem is about a man trying to convince his love-interest, Celia, to give in to passion and enjoy the "sports of love" with him, to use the poem's language. First, he argues that time is short and they, her especially, really should not waste it, "Spend not then his gifts in vain." He gives himself the responsibility not to take the gift of time, life, and love for granted. He basically speaks about how time should be stolen, in order to cherish it, express ones feelings, and carry on in life with it. The symbol, alliteration, and overall images set in the poem makes it easier to understand what Ben Jonson is really trying to explain to whoever it implies to. Second, he argues that it's not the act of lovemaking that is the crime, but the telling of it: "'Tis no sin love's fruit to steal But the sweet theft to reveal/To be taken, to be seen,/ These have crimes accounted been." (Jonson). At this point, the poem turns from one about not losing time together, to one about a secretive affair. He asks "cannot we delude the eyes/ of a few poor household spies?". Since he is saying that they have been noticed by some "household spies," then he's telling Celia to enjoy the time they have together, because it will not last long at all. The writer of this poem gives the audience a mix of thoughts by giving ideas that their love is forbidden and the time they have spent and have left was cherished but is sadly running out. In conclusion, all these poems share the same concept but all of them give a different outlook and meaning. They provide the reader with pictures and feelings from the actual poem and leave the reader wanting more. The poems that were spoken about allow the reader to relate and understand the authors point of view because the stories behind the poems are all relatable. Love is a topic that is easily written about mostly because everyone in a period of their life experiences it. All these poems tie up together with almost the same idea and structure, love. These three authors all gave these poems a different situation and idea of love that allows the reader to expand and understand the different feelings this emotion brings whether its love for a person or a thing.