Love in Poetry

Paper Summary:

"How Do I Love Thee' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and "What Lips My Lips Have Kissed" by Edna St. Vincent Millay are poems that deal with love, although both deliver very different messages. This paper examines the theme, figures of speech and the tone of each poem to show how they differ. The paper shows that the theme of Barrett Browning's poem is predominately a theme celebrating the happiness and warmth of a love that is shared between two people, while, in contrast, Millay's poem demonstrates a more somber attitude toward love.

From the Paper:

"Each poet also uses tone to convey her personal feelings regarding love. Browning's poem moves swiftly as she uses words that are short and concise, such as height, sight, and candlelight. Her sonnet is also filled with cheerful words, such as praise and faith. These words are positive associations. She also refers to her passion as a good thing. In addition, she uses an exclamation in the poem to reiterate the positive emotion. In contrast, Millay begins and ends her poem on the melancholy view of love. She chooses words for her sonnet that move slowly and cause us to slow down when reading, such as rain, lain, pain, sigh, reply, and cry. These words evoke negative reactions. Millay also mentions her "quiet pain" in this poem, which reinforces negative, or painful, connotations. "

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