English Literature A2 Wider Reading- Love Through the Ages POETRY

Poetry

John Donne- The Undertaking 

• "Forget the He and She"
  - poem about platonic love, non-sexual, different from Donne's usual poetry. Use to contast or compare with the type of love in exam.
• "Virtue in woman see"
  - typical of the time, courtly love

John Donne- Love's Alchemy  

• "And as no chymic yet th'elixir got"
  - conciet/extended metaphor which was typical of poems at the time. Relevant descriptions to the era in which he was writing.
• "Hope not for mind in women; at their best/ Sweetness and wit, they'are but mummy, possess'd"
  - Cynical view of women and of love, different from The Undertaking. Shows how poems can be written in personas. Use to contrast or compare with the narrator's view of love in exam.

Shakespeare- Sonnet 130

•  "My Mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun" 
  - degrades her looks etc. yet is still in love with her. Shows how love can overcome and transcend beauty, completely different from usual courtly love poetry.

Edmund Spenser- My Love is Like To Ice

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