When Love Hurts - Essay Example

?Full When Love Hurts Love is a wonderful feeling but it cannot be denied that in every relationship, there are always trials that lovers often go through to test their sincerity. Different people handle relationships differently because of the different perspectives they hold. Moreover, experiences environmental factors and observations somehow affect how people react in every situation that they encounter. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in every relationship, there are differences and circumstances that might just cause the people involved emotional and psychological pains. Walther von der Vogelweide’s poems entitled “Blissful He lay” and “How Beautiful Her Form and Face”, both exemplify the aforementioned pains experienced by the lovers. The first poem speaks about the pains of love and parting while the other speaks of the pains of unreciprocated love and devotion. In “Blissful He Lay”, Walther tells the story of the love a cavalier holds for a young woman whom he was sleeping with. The lovers are devoted to each other but their situations are causing them the pains and fears that they have. Their story is known through the conversations that they have in the form of a poem and it is implied that the woman is of high standing while it has been clearly stated that the man is a cavalier. At first reading, one could imagine that the cavalier’s job was hindering the lovers in being together as they please. The woman often pleaded with the man not to leave her alone but the cavalier appeared to be firm and decided, telling her that he must leave her. He promises the lady that he will return to her as much as he could, making readers to consider other reasons for their situation because if there was nothing in between them but the man’s job, they could have easily resolved the problem by getting married. However, towards the end of the poem, the man says to the lady, “Permit me now to ride away from here, to save your name must I take leave” (Walther, 211). This makes the readers understand that the lady could be from a high societal status, making it impossible for her to marry the cavalier because of the name that she is protecting. It is obvious that the two are hiding their relationship, with the man going to the lady’s bed at night whenever he can. Before the break of day, he had to make haste and leave so that no one will see him coming out of the lady’s room which might take her name ridiculed because of their illicit affair and this makes their love difficult and painful especially on the part of the lady. The love between the characters in the second poem on the other hand is known only by the speaker. The narrator in the poem is the male lover who fell in love with a young woman whom he accidentally saw all naked after her bath. He is older than the woman which he makes an issue of, hindering him to tell about his love. The man is afraid that the woman might be too proud to accept his love and that would only leave him in pain and misery. He then chooses to rather feel the pain of not telling his feelings to the object of her love than to feel the pain of being rejected. Due to this situation, the love of the man is not acknowledged and reciprocated but rather is secretly cared for by him alone. Therefore, he satisfied himself in just looking at the woman from afar. In contrast to this, it is observed that in “Blissful He Lay”, the woman instead of the man; has all the fears of what their relationship would cause her. The male character feared rejection while the woman feared separation. “Blissful He Lay” uses conversations between the two characters to narrate their story on a free style, observing no set number of lines. The tone of the characters’ voices is melancholic because of the situation that they are in. Not all of the circumstances are explicitly described in the poem so that the picture is made cleared through the use of connotations. For instance, as mentioned earlier, it is understood that the lovers’ relationship was not accepted perhaps by the family of the lady or as demanded by the norms because she is from a family with a respected name. It is not clear if the respect could be from their economic status but perhaps with the common problems observed in similar cases even a few years ago, it could be safely concluded that there is a great gap in the economic status of the two lovers. The setting is clearly understood further through the descriptions the lovers use in their conversations. For example, the poem opens with “Blissful he lay, the lusty cavalier, upon a lady’s arm. He saw the morning light as, gleaming from a distance…” (210). This shows that the lovers are lying on the bed together as they wait for dawn to break. This explains the calm countenance of the man in contrast to the lady’s fearful mood. The cavalier is described as lusty, denoting that the lovers have perhaps just wantonly expressed their feelings towards each other. This made the man blissful and contented because he knows that his love is reciprocated as opposed to the male character in the other poem mentioned above. “How Beautiful Her Form and Face” on the other hand is a monologue using alternate rhyming scheme. The last words of the lines of the first verse compose of the words face, long, place, song, all alone, fall, own, air and thee. It is observed that the scheme is not used in all the lines of the verse. Face rhymes with place, long with song, all with fall and alone with own but air and thee do not rhyme at all. The poet takes the freedom to make use of the free style towards every end of the verses not only with the rhyming scheme but also with the meter. In the first eight lines of the first verse, octameter is used and the last two lines freely choose the number of meters that enable the poet express more clearly his thoughts. In addition to the metrical measures used to effectively bring life to the story in the poem, the author also uses connotations just as he did in the other poem mentioned in this paper. It is learned from he words of the speaker that he is older than the woman he secretly loves because of his statement, “then might a miracle begin to make me young once more.” This is referred to the effect of the woman to the man if only she would hold the stars, meaning the eyes of the woman, so near to him so that he could see himself there (213). In the latter poem, more figures of speech have been used than in “Blissful He Lay”. The two eyes of the woman are metaphorically presented as “two stars” (213). Simile is also used as shown in the phrases, “here like a lily”, “a fragrance drips as balsam” and “as only heaven e’er may be” (214). Hyperbole is evident in the poem showing exaggerations that present even better the emotions felt by the speaker. “Her head is so exceeding fair” (213) shows how the man greatly appreciates the beauty of the woman. “I would arise as from the dead” (214) connotes being revitalized or strengthened but at the same time portrays an exaggeration of the man’s situation. “Blissful” uses minimal figures of speech like simile shown in the statement, “He saw the morning light as gleaming from a distance” (211). The poet also plays with his words as in the phrase, “Lady I must fly” (211). No man is able to fly but the choice of word shows how playfully it has been used in the poem to express how necessary it was for the man to go away as quickly as he could before anyone could see him. The two poems are both written by the same author but it evident how he makes use of different techniques to express the differences in his thoughts. However, it seems that Walther von der Vogelweide wants to make a signature for himself by using the free style. As mentioned earlier, octameter was used in his other poem but he did not limit the use of one style in just one poem but adapted the use of free style as well. His themes are about the pains brought about by love that is not reciprocated and one that is hindered and he brings to life the stories through a monologue and a dialogue. Read More