<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why is poetry so popular with love-lorn peeps, heartbroken couples or those in the throes of ardour? What is it about the heart that it can connect with a poem of love, some of which can be interpreted any which way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Love poetry is a thing on Instagram and even if you haven\u2019t publicly posted your scribblings, don\u2019t you psst\u2026 have a diary somewhere beneath dried petals in your drawer tucked away for-your-eyes only?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sigh, if this is taking you in the zone of longing, here are 4 flavours of love for you today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI love thee to the depth and breadth and height<\/p>
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight<\/p>
For the ends of being and ideal grace\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Averring her adoration, expressing how deep and wide it is, counting the ways in which she is besotted with her beloved, How do I Love Thee is the ultimate declaration of ardour. It is an all consuming passion and yet spiritual, tying it with human emotions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, married to the poet Robert Browning was more popular than her husband. This Sonnet is part of Sonnets from the Portuguese, published in 1850 and Portuguese is rumoured to be Elizabeth\u2019s nickname.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cShall I compare thee to a summer\u2019s day?<\/p>
Thou art more lovely and more temperate\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Deep affection sets the tone of this sonnet. Dwelling on the youthfulness and beauty of one\u2019s beloved is a commonly occuring theme in love poems. Sonnet 18 goes a step further and alludes to immortality through adoration and the written word. Love never dies, does it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
William Shakespeare, the playwright was first famous as a poet. The poem is part of Fair Youth sequence which has Sonnets 1 \u2013 126, published in 1609. Though the sonnet seems to talk of the beloved, it underlies that eternal life may not be accessible to man but it can be achieved through the written word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having 14 lines of iambic pentameter, it is a typical Shakespearean sonnet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mad Girl\u2019s Love Song by Sylvia Plath<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;<\/p>
I lift my lids and all is born again.<\/p>
(I think I made you up inside my head.)\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
Unrequited love, broken promises, disappointed hopes, Mad Girl\u2019s Love Song is the reminder we need of how love can be transforming even though not returned. Don\u2019t let the poem turn you maudlin, rejoice in the beauty of affection that humans are capable of. Reflect on the fact that love, the feeling can sometimes be imagined when love, the verb is shy of appearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written by Sylvia Plath in her third year of Smith\u2019s College in 1953, the poem has been analysed through the lens of mental illness, isolation, denial and escapism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For poetry afficinados, it\u2019s written in the villanelle<\/a> form. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Variations on the Word Love by Margaret Atwood<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a single<\/p>
Vowel in this metallic<\/p>
Silence, a mouth that says<\/p>
O again and again in wonder<\/p>
And pain, a breath, a finger<\/p>
Grip on a cliffside. You can<\/p>
Hold on or let go.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n
How can you define deep affection? The raw, basic essence of love is sugar-coated with commercial connotations in our times. At the same time, the essence of the emotion is too vast and complex to be expressed through just 4 letters. Choose to use the word gingerely and with sincerity for it\u2019s fragile and sacred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This modern-day poem on affection was written by Margaret Atwood in 1981, who says the word love is not enough but it will have to do. The poem is said to raise questions on whether we toss around this word too casually?<\/p>\n\n\n\n