Loooovvvaah

Oh love. I decided to look at "This was once a love poem" by Jane Hirshfield and "She walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron. Both address matters of the heart, but the approach is incredibly different. Lord Byron praises every aspect of his lover, "And all that's best of dark and bright / Meet in her aspect and in her eyes". It is clear that he loves loving her. He describes her beauty in an almost awestruck way, unable to fully tell the reader what he is be holding. So he compares her to nature, to the infinites of the skies and the soft rays of heaven. He believes her heart is "A heart whose love is innocent". Hirshfield on the other hand tells with the reality of a once love - one that is now lost, whether to death or a parting of ways is a little unclear. She personifies the love poem, for that it what it once was. "It once spoke with passion of history, of art." It seems almost reminiscent of the times gone by, back when "it was lovely then, this poem." But life seems to have created a rift in this perfect love that fueled the passion mentioned before. But "the longing was not diminished", this is key! The speaker still feels a tug of love even though things aren't like they used to be. Between these two poems, I relate slightly more to Hirshfield's if only because I'm not a huge fan of sappy, overwhelming love like the one Lord Byron describes. But that does not mean I'm all about experiencing the loss of love yet still holding on to the memory.