Love: Better Lost or Unfulfilled?
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document in English
literature
school essay
published 07/08/2007
review : Completed
level : Advanced
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SummaryWhile unrequited love is typically viewed as among the most torturous emotions one can imagine, when compared to experiencing the decay of a once fulfilled, true love, the ever-longing heart may have its merits. Thomas Hardy’s “Neutral Tones” attests to the misery of love gone sour, painting a painful scene of the death rattle of a once vital, loving relationship. In “When You Are Old,” William Butler Yeats portrays another form of failed union in a regretful lament of unfulfilled, unrequited love. Both poems use similarly conventional structures to convey their somewhat “universal,” tragic themes, and both poems examine their loves through dreamlike recollections. In addition, the poems each employ bleak, colorless imagery to create a world where a personified Love has caused the dejection of their narrators. However, the romantic failures of the narrators result in differing attitudes concerning love. Betrayed by reality, the narrator of “Neutral Tones” projects a deeply cynical view of love, while the narrator of “When You Are Old,” uncorrupted by experience, maintains an ideal vision of the love that would have been had his feelings been reciprocated.
Table of Contents
- Both poems use similarly conventional structures to convey their somewhat 'universal,' tragic themes, and both poems examine their loves through dreamlike recollections
- The narrator of each poem frames a dreamlike recreation of his past relationship
- Hardy and Yeats use similarly colorless imagery to convey the lifelessness of the scenes
- For both sorrowful narrators, the personified Love is to blame for their sadness rather than the actual lovers from whom they are separated
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