Spring Morning by John Clare, and Coldness In Love by DH Lawrence Essay Example For Students

Spring Morning by John Clare, and Coldness In Love by DH Lawrence Essay The two poems A Spring Morning and Coldness In Love both have a common theme of love, but talk about vastly different aspects of that one emotion. An obvious contrast is that in A Spring Morning, John Clare talks of the positive aspects of love, and how it feels to be in love, while in Coldness In Love, DH Lawrence talks of the pain that can be experienced by someone who was once in love, but has been cast aside by his lover. Another obvious contrast between the two poems is that they are set in contrasting seasons, as Clares poem is set in spring, hence the title A Spring Morning, while Lawrences poem is set in winter. A clear comparison between the two poems show that they both use pathetic fallacy to reflect the mood, attitude and feelings that they have towards both love, and also what love can do to people. In the poem A Spring Morning, Clare describes the act of falling into love, and how once in it all appears to be perfect. He does not talk of a specific case of falling into love, but talks of the general feelings that one can experience when they are in love. As the poem is generalised, it lacks a definitive story-line, which contrasts with Coldness In Love, which talks of a specific case of someone (most probably Lawrence himself) having difficulties in love, and being cast aside by his lover. A Spring Morning is obviously set in spring, and the imagery used in it describes all of the positive aspects of love, without talking about any of the problems that sometimes occur between lovers. An example of the positive imagery Clare uses to describe the feelings of love are shown in the below quotations: Fresh are new opened flowers, untouched and free From the bold rifling of the amorous bee. I think that the words untouched and free from the above quotation could give a possible motive for why Clare wrote the poem. This motive could be Clare trying to describe the first time that he has fallen in love. This idea is also supported by Clare saying Fresh are new opened flowers, which could talk about girls reaching puberty, and becoming more womanly. Clare also uses some sexual imagery to describe love, and spring, as he uses the words rifling of the amorous bee to describe having sexual intercourse. He also tries to describe spring as being virginal, as he describes the flowers (possibly referring to young women) as untouched and free. The fact that Clare only seems to describe the positive aspects of love could dismay some people from enjoying the poem, as they might find the poem to be too one-sided and also too generalised, as Clare never mentions a specific person who is in love. Coldness In Love contrasts sharply with this, because it talks of a very specific case of someone being in love, and the troubles that they encountered whilst they were (or maybe still are) in love. The poem is extremely negative about the feelings one can experience in love, which again may give the poem a minority appeal of other people who have at one time or another been cast aside by their lover. However, this poem is much more realistic than A Spring Morning, which may appeal to some people as they will appreciate Lawrences honesty in the poem, and feel sympathy for him, as he suffered much pain during the relationship that he described. An example of the negative imagery Lawrence uses to describe how he feels towards love I shown in the quotation below: The sea and the sky went grey, as if they had sunk A flocculent dust on the floor of the world: the festoon Of the sky sagged dusty as spider cloth, And coldness clogged the sea, till it ceased to croon. Lawrences attitude towards love is obviously very negative, as shown by the first line of the above quotation. He talks of how The sea and the sky went grey, which could be referring to love abandoning him, and taking all of the colour, pleasure and meaning out of his life. The above quotation also shows Lawrences negative attitude towards love, as he says that the sky sagged, which again could refer to the meaning being taken out of his life, and what life he has left has slowly started to collapse in on him. Coldness In Love is set in winter, as the season reflects the feelings that Lawrence describes. The cold described in the title is shown by the winter weather, which is always cold. Lawrence describes the feelings that he felt when he parted from his previous lover with a passion, showing that the pain he felt was still very vivid during the writing of the poem. Throughout the poem Lawrence also describes trying to recover his lost lover, but to no avail. The coldness described throughout the poem could show how much Lawrence missed his lover, and how he was not complete without her. This could be so, because the opposite feeling of warmth is associated with being content, and the lack of that warmth could signify his lack of contention now that he is alone. The following quotation shows this clearly: But still to me all evening long you were cold, Egyptian Poetry EssayI also think that the poetic devices that Lawrence has used, especially the deliberate clumsiness allow him to communicate his pain and grief with the reader very well, as it allows the reader to understand what frame of mind he must have been in to write such things. I find that A Spring Morning is too generalised in its references to love, as it does not talk of the love of a person, or animal or anything like that, but just gives a general overview of what love is. I also find that Clare has a far too one-sided view of love, and what people experience when they are in love. This seems far too unrealistic, as nobody has the kind of love that he describes a love that is totally perfect without any compromise or pain. Clare talks about a very traditional love, which could be as he wrote the poem in the early nineteenth century, while Coldness In Love was written in the early twentieth century. Also, I find that Clares poem is far too controlled, which shows that it must have been thoroughly planned and I feel could not reflect his true mood when he was writing it, which contrasts to the way I feel about Lawrences poem. Lawrences poem seems to be very passionate, even though it has some structure to it, such as all of the stanzas being of a certain length (five lines). However, Lawrences poem is punctuated very heavily, which severely disrupts the flow of someone reading it, as the punctuation is not regular, such as a poem that has mainly end-stopping (such as A Spring Morning), but has a combination of punctuation including end-stopping, enjambment and caesuras. I also feel that Coldness In Love is a far more effective poem to read and appreciate, because it has a clear story-line to it, while A Spring Morning doesnt. Clares poem talks about a generalised feeling of being loved or being in love, while Lawrences poem takes the reader on a journey. Coldness In Love talks about how Lawrence immediately felt after losing his lover, and about how he pined to have her back into his life for a period afterwards, before finally being able to move on. The last couple of lines of the poem show that Lawrence was ready to move on, as shown from the following quotation: With cold, like the shell of the moon; and strange it seems That my love can dawn in warmth again, unafraid. The very last word, unafraid helps to give a finality to the poem that even though Lawrence has experienced torment after the end of a relationship, he has dealt with his emotions, and the fact that he is ready to move on after this gives the reader some hope for the future, especially if they have also experienced traumatic relationships themselves. I think that Coldness In Love involves the reader much more deeply then A Spring Morning, as Lawrence communicates his feelings in reference to love much more clearly through his use of language, particularly the heavy, uncontrolled punctuation and harsh alliteration, combined with the specificity of the poem. Lawrences use of poetic devices convey his pain with the readers, which give him a wider appeal, as everyone experiences some degree of grief in their life with reference to the termination of a n important relationship. I think that Coldness In Love is vastly more realistic in the way it describes love in comparison to A Spring Morning, which describes an idyllic love where everything is perfect, which does not appeal to me. It also appears that Clare is somewhat detached from the subject matter he describes in his poem, which gives the poem a lack of sincerity, which is the absolute opposite to Coldness In Love. In Lawrences poem, there is no doubt that the emotions Lawrence describes are what he actually felt when his relationship was terminated, as he describes his feelings in much more detail. The details he gives, and the similes and metaphors that he uses to describe the way he feels give depth to his poem, which make it feel much more sincere. I think that Coldness In Love is a vastly more effective poem than A Spring Morning, as Lawrence communicates more with the reader, due to his detailed descriptions, and clever use of language. His poem seems far more realistic than Clares poem, as it allows the reader to feel real emotions towards the subject matter, while the emotions that Clare describes seem a little too gleeful to allow the reader to involve themselves fully. Coldness In Love has a greater deal of individuality as a poem over A Spring Morning, which describes love in a vague, hazy way, which contrasts with the specificity and detail of Coldness In Love.