love

I chose the poems "True Love" by Robert Penn Warren and "She Walks in Beauty" by
Lord Byron. I chose these two poems because I found that they have contrasting attitudes toward love. At the beginning of both poems, a woman is portrayed and is talked about as if she is a goddess. In the second stanza of "True Love" it states "there is nothing like Beauty. It stops your heart." In "She Walks in Beauty," Byron uses dark and light comparisons when talking about the beauty of the woman. ("She walks in beauty, like the night of cloudless climes and starry skies" (stanza 1)) The talk of the beauty of a woman continues in "She Walks in beauty" continues throughout the whole poem while the beauty stops in "True Love." In the poem, you find out bad things and the love seems to end tragically in the 11th stanza- "The mortgage was foreclosed. That last word was whispered. She never came back. The family Sort of drifted off. Nobody wears shiny boots like that now." I interpreted it as love is beautiful at first but ends tragically. I interpreted from "She Walks in beauty" that love is a beautiful, pure thing. Although both poems had a positive attitude toward love at the beginning, the attitude takes a tragic turn in "True Love."

Love. Some say it sucks, some say its the best thing in the whole world. There are countless movies that end in the protagonist finding their "soul mate" and going off to live "happily ever after." But is this love realistic? I sure hope so. I know love can be a horrible thing, especially if it ends in heart break. Although I agree that love can end tragically (as portrayed in "True Love") I believe that "She Walks in Beauty"'s view on love comes closer to my own. I believe that love is beautiful, you just have to find the right person.