Aspects_of_Poetry

LTR215-1101B Phase 2 Individual Project Aspects of Poetry Sandy Lowmaster February 25, 2011 In the sonnet, “The Lamb”, by William Blake, and the poem, “A Red, Red Rose”, by Robert Burns talks about love as their theme. The Lamb talks about how God loves us, by using things to describe his love, and The Red; Red Rose is talking about a love for a person by comparing it to words that go with love. Metaphors are used in The Lamb to help us see what God has done for us to show his love. He is asking if we know that we were made by him. He is giving us a picture of life with metaphors, by telling us that our lives were created by him (Blake, 2000, pg 485). Our food that we eat was given to us by God and not by man. We would not be able to talk to one another if God had not given us our voices. We would not have clothes to wear if it was not for him either. These are a form of material gifts of love that God has given us for our lives today. The Red, Red Rose, the author uses a conventional symbol and a simile “like a red, red rose” to show his love for a lady. There are other images and similes used to describe his love for his lady such as a, “like the melodie, that’s sweetly played in tune” (Burns, 2000, pg 487). The tone changes in the sonnet The Lamb in asking us do we know who the one is that loves us. He uses a conventional symbol of comparing him as to a lamb which represents a young sheep. He also tells us he’s a child and a lamb (Blake, 2000, pg 485), which would say to us he is like that of a child. As we read further, we find out that God compares himself as meek and mild. Meek means submissive and mild (Webster New Compact Dictionary, 1984, pg 161) and mild means not severe or harsh (Webster Dictionary, pg 163). We see that God yields himself and is not going to be mean to us but love us. The tone also changes in the poem A Red, Red Rose where he loves her even when things happen. He is telling the lady he loves that his love for her will still be there even when the seas dry up, no matter how hot it gets and even as life goes on. The endings of the poems are different in the way love stands forever. In The Lamb, it tells us in the end that God has showed him the ways in God loves him in providing for him and now little child thank me for my love. The Red, Red Rose shows that even miles away his love for his lady will stand no matter what and he will come back for his love. In both the sonnet and the poem, the authors use images so we can literally be a part of it. They used images which included mental pictures so we could see it through their eyes and feelings, so we could feel what they felt. Without the metaphors such as clothing of wooly bright, clothing of delight, like a red, red rose and like a sweetly played melody, we would not have been able to be fully engulfed in the sonnet or poem. When reading both of these, it was like being in the person in the poem or sonnet. It felt real, believable and very mesmerizing. Each one had a different tone through the middle and a point made about love at the end that was different but the same. References: Blake, William, “The Lamb”, (2009); Gardner, Literature, A Portable Anthology, 2nd Edition, pg 485 Burns, Robert, the Red, Red Rose” (2009); Gardner, Literature, A Portable Anthology, 2nd Edition, pg 487 Nelson, Thomas Publishers, Webster’s New Compact Dictionary, pages 161, 163