The best way to
express one’s feelings of love and passion is through sharing poems and songs.
People have different views on love. Many of these views throughout the ages
are explored through poetry and songs. The main idea or assumption explored in
the poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband”
by Anne Bradstreet and “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning is
that true love is exclusive and passionate. The song “Just The Way You Are” by
Billy Joel is also a pure expression of unconditional and devoted love. The
poems and the song illustrate the theme of love by portraying an emotional,
passionate and sincere tone.
In the poem, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” Bradstreet expresses
her intense love and undying affection for her husband. There is a tone of
happiness, contentment and pride in the poem, that is conveyed through the word
choices she uses. In the first stanza, she presents her heartfelt feelings
within a logical argument through the repeated use of if/then statements. The
repetition of the phrase “If…then” highlights the poet’s intent to persuade her
audience of the truth of her claims. She employs a distinct metaphor in the
second stanza by saying “I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold / or
all the riches that the East doth hold” (Bradstreet 5-6). In the following
lines, she shifts from how much she values this earthly love to the scope and
insatiability of her desire. By arguing, “My love is such that rivers cannot
quench” (Bradstreet 7), the author implies that her love is an ongoing thirst
that no amount of water can slake. In the lines 8-10, Bradstreet talks about
her husband’s love for her. The word “recompense” suggests the use of a
metaphor by comparing love to money. This can be seen in the line “Nor ought
but love from thee give recompense.” Then she says she has no way of repaying
him for his love, and she prays that the "heavens reward" him. The
final lines of the poem repeat the key term "ever," used in each of
the poem's thee opening lines. The speaker concludes the poem by saying that
she and her husband should love each other so strongly while they're alive that
they will live forever.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "How Do I Love
Thee" is more abstract unlike Anne Bradstreet's "To My Dear and
Loving Husband" which is written to a specific person. However, the
authors use both these poems to describe unwavering love and affection. In the
poem "How Do I Love Thee," Browning is trying to describe the
abstract feeling of love by measuring how much her love means to her. She also
expresses all the different ways of loving someone and she tells us about her
thoughts around her beloved. The tone of the poem is deep, in a loving way. When
she describes the many ways in which she loves "Thee", she describes
the limitless boundaries in which she loves her husband. In the poem, Barrett
Browning says, “My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight” (Browning 3).
This is an illustration of how much she trusts him. Even though she cannot see
the ending of how this love will end, she trusts him and is willing to reach
out in darkness, not knowing what’s coming for her. She also says “I love thee
with the breath, smiles, tears of all my life” (Browning 12). This implies that
no matter what is going on in her life, whether something horrible happened or
it’s just a normal day, she trusts him to stay by her side and that she will
love every minute of it.
The word “love,” is repeated frequently in the sonnet. Likewise,
the fact that she never uses any synonyms for love makes us realize that what
she feels is love. That there is no other words that can be used to describe
this, because love is such an abstract word and also is a very difficult word
to describe. In the end, Barrett Browning achieved what she wanted. She brought
out to the world the tremendous, abstract subject of love, and with great
success. She warms up our hearts by showing her passion to her beloved, how
openly and freely she trusts him.
Comparatively, the song “Just The Way You Are” by Billy
Joel is a pure expression of unconditional and devoted love. It conveys a tone
of intimacy and contentment through the theme of love. He wrote this song about
his first wife, Elizabeth and gave it to her as a birthday present. This track
from Joel’s 1977 album, The Stranger, won the 1979 Grammy
Awards. Billy Joel's classic “Just The
Way You Are” is an absolutely beautiful song about not changing who we
are. The song stresses this fact through the lines, “Don't go trying some new
fashion; Don't change the color of your hair” (Joel). It is normal to have
doubts about ourselves or doubts about a relationship but we need to remind
ourselves that if someone truly cares then they will love us just the way we
are. The lyricist expresses his sincere and unconditional love for his wife
through the song and conveys a message that we should love people for who they
are.
The poems “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and "How
Do I Love Thee" and the song “Just The Way You Are” encapsulate the theme
of love. Each has a tone of emotion and intimacy. The authors have shown that
they believe their love shared with their spouses is of an unquestioned
quality. Both the poets write with such passion that in the end, they hope that
even after death, they are still with their husbands and can love them even
better. The lyricist expresses his unconditional love for his wife and tells us
about not changing who we are. These works illustrate that love can be far more
valuable and treasured in life than material things. We also can look into
these writings and find ourselves wanting to enjoy the same passion and
unbridled love that these poems and songs evoke.
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