Contrasting Love

        So... I read "Love Is Not All" by Edna St. Vincent Millay and "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron. I did not enjoy them. Both are extremely love filled, but offer very different views on love itself.
        "Love Is Not All" tries to show that although love is very important and one of the beautiful things about life, people get too gooey with it. Millay writes "Many a man is making friends with death…for lack of love alone;" which is basically saying that if you rely solely on love, you will certainly meet death. Millay continues to give off the cynic vibe; the reader feels that she does not believe in the grandeur and showmanship that love often brings. I mean c'mon, even the title, "Love Is Not All" shows Millays feelings about it. And although she feels this way, at the very end she chooses to have a brief moment of reconsideration. She writes that "I might be driven to sell your love…I do not think I would;". So Millay says "hey, love is important, but don't make it your life. Leave that mushy gushy crap at the door.
        On the COMPLETELY other hand, Lord Byron, in "She Walks in Beauty," loves the flowy romanticism that love brings. He uses classic allusions to light and dark when he says, "And all that's best of dark and bright....Thus mellowed to that tender light / Which heaven to gaudy day denies". He annoyingly compares her to both the light and the dark, which, I'm sorry, but that's just ridiculous. From my view, it seems like Byron is trying to say that she is the best of both worlds, best of light and dark. It sickens me. Lord Byron fully embraces the mushy romantics, and his romantic tone is set through his word choice, like in the use of words like "sweet…pure…dear" to describe her face. It's disgusting.
        I definitely align more with Millay. I understand that love has to have a certain level of mushiness, but once you get on the level of Lord Byron, it just gets annoying. It's like PDA in the hallways. There's a time and a place to show affection, any more and everyone will just hate you.