In Lord Byron's "She Walks in Beauty," he references light several times in order to describe the beauty of the woman he presumably loves. He uses the words 'night' 'cloudless' 'starry' 'dark' 'bright' 'shade' 'ray' 'softly lightens' 'tints' and 'glow' to demonstrate hoe beautiful she is. Although not all of these words directly relate to light and dark, they give connotations of the sky and bright/dark coloring. This entire poem pretty much just talks about how pretty and perfect the girl is. He ends by saying she has, "A heart whose love is innocent!"(18). Not only is she physically attractive, but also she is beautiful and pure on the inside. His reference to her innocence makes her seem like an angel.
On the contrary, Billy Collins' "Weighing the Dog" references an entirely different kind of love. He is talking about how is life is different with and without his beloved dog. He mentions that he subtracted his his weight from the weight on the scale in order to find the weight of the dog, and then realizes that it's an analogy to their real life. He did not realize the value of his dog in his life until they had to separate. He says now they are both lost in, "strange and different neighborhoods"(15). Life is completely different than it was with his dog and he didn't realize the change would be so dramatic.
The two types of love are so drastic; Collins is nostalgic for his dog and didn't expect the huge lifestyle change. Byron describes the woman to be incredibly beautiful and innocent. It is a very romantic love rather than simply a type of unconditional companion love shared between a dog and his owner. Because I have never been in a serious relationship, I would have to say that the love between the dog and his owner comes closer to home. One of my two dogs died last summer and my life has been very different without him. I often think about him and get sad; my other dog still seems distraught without his friend which makes me even more upset. Although it will change, at this point in my life, the love between a dog and an owner is more important that one between a couple.
While I can relate to dog devotion, I think Collins was creating the analogy between subtracting himself from a relationship with a woman to subtracting his weight from the dog's to "size up" the significance of his departure/break up.
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