APPENDICES
THE LADY’S YES
“Yes,” I answered you last night “No,” this morning, Sir, I say Colors seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day
When the tabors played their best, Lamps above, and laughs below Love me sounded like a jest Fit for Yes or fit for No
Call me false, or call me free Vow, whatever light may shine No man on your face shall see Any grief for change on mine
Learn to win a lady’s faith Nobly, as the thing is high Bravely, as for life and death With a loyal gravity
Lead her from the festive boards Point her to the starry skies
Guard her, by your truthfull words Pure from courtships’s flatteries
HOW DO I LOVE THEE
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light I love thee freely, as men strive for right I love thee purely, as they turn from praise I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
Elizabeth Barrett Browning Biography
Elizabeth Barrett Moulton-Barrett was born on 6 March 1806, in Coxhoe
Hall, between the villages of
parents were Edward Barrett Moulton Barrett and Mary Graham Clarke; Elizabeth
was the eldest of their 12 children (eight boys and four girls). All the children lived
to adulthood except for one girl, who died at the age of three when Elizabeth was
eight. The children in her family all had nicknames: Elizabeth was "Ba" to her
family. She rode her pony in the lanes around the Barrett estate, went with her
brothers and sisters for walks and picnics in the countryside, visited other county
families to drink tea, accepted visits in return, and participated with her brothers and
sisters in homemade theatrical productions. But, unlike her two sisters and eight
brothers, she immersed herself in the world of books as often as she could get away
from the social rituals of her family. She was baptized in 1809 at Kelloe Parish
Church, though she had already been baptized by a family friend in her first week of
life.
Some of Elizabeth Barrett's family had lived in Jamaica since 1655. The main
wealth of the household derived from Edward Barrett (1734–1798), landowner of
10,000 acres (40 km2) in
in northern Jamaica. Elizabeth's maternal grandfather owned sugar plantations, mills,
glassworks and ships that traded between Jamaica and Newcastle. Biographer Julia
Markus states that the poet 'believed that she had African blood through her
grandfather Charles Moulton'. There is no evidence to suggest that her line of the
Barrett family had any African ancestry, although other branches did, through the
genealogy in relation to Jamaica is unclear.The family wished to hand down their
name as well as their wealth, stipulating that Barrett should be held as a surname. In
some cases inheritance was given on condition that the name Barrett had to be used
by the beneficiary. Given the strong tradition, Elizabeth used 'Elizabeth Barrett
Moulton Barrett' on legal documents and before she was married often signed herself
as 'Elizabeth Barrett Barrett', or 'EBB' (initials which she was able to keep after her
wedding). Elizabeth's father chose to raise his family in England while his fortune
grew in Jamaica. The fortune of Elizabeth's mother's line, the Graham Clarke family,
also derived in part from slave labour, and was considerable.
She wrote poetry from her earliest years, but at the age of 20 she began to
interest wider literary circles. After the death of her mother in 1828, there followed
many years of suffering and misfortune with the deaths of brothers and a recurrence
of her illness. Family disputes, adverse trading conditions, and the end of slavery
reduced the Barretts' income so drastically that the stately home had to be sold. There
was, however, enough wealth left to support a very comfortable lifestyle in a
fashionable area of London, 50 Wimpole Street. Her reputation as a poet and critic
grew while she retreated to her sick room, unable to breathe in London's polluted air.
Then one day she allowed Robert Browning, as a fellow poet, to visit her—the rest,
as they say, is history.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was a highly esteemed poet in the nineteenth
century. Married to fellow poet Robert Browning, her fame and reputation surpassed
his – she was even a role model for Emily Dickinson herself. Browning grew up in a
wealthy household, which gave her the background and inspiration to write poems
The Lady’s Yes was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and first published at year 1844. The Lady’s Yes opens with a woman taking back the yes she had given to a gentleman suitor the night before. We find out in the second stanza that the
affirmative answer was given in response to the young man’s inquiry into whether
she loves him or not. However, the speaker says she has changed her mind because
Colours, seen by candle-light, Will not look the same by the day. The opportunity for love and the possibilities for her future that seemed so bright the night before dim by
the next morning, and she decides that no, she does not in fact love him. The speaker
was caught up in the atmosphere of the previous night, in the lamp light, the music
(the “tabors” mentioned are a type of drum), and the laughter surrounding them, and
agreed that she loved her suitor without thinking. Now she is dealing with the
repercussions, namely the risk of being called “fast” or “free,” both insults for those
who were considered ladies at the time. However, she says she does not regret
changing her mind, and even blames the suitor for catching her off guard, saying,
Timeto dance is not to woo, and that it is as much his fault as it is hers.
The second half of the poem consists of the speaker giving the gentleman
advice on how to really win over a lady. She tells him to be noble, brave, and loyal,
as these are all traits that ladies deserve. She also advises him to be truthful. This
implies that she does not feel that he was truthful with her. Caught up in the moment,
she believes they both said things they did not mean, so she warns him to speak
nothing but the truth to any future love interests, and not to focus so much on
“courtship’s flatteries.” With this truthfulness, she says, if another lady responds with
How Do I Love Thee? is one of the most famous love poems in the English language. Because it's so famous, many readers mistakenly attribute the poem to that
master sonneteer,How do I love thee? was written
centuries after Shakespeare – in fact, it's only been around for a little over 150 years.
Prominent Victorian poet
1850.
The poem was part of a sonnet sequence called
The title of the sequence is intentionally misleading; Barrett Browning implied to her
readers that these were sonnets originally written by someone else in Portuguese and
that she had translated them, whereas in reality they were her own original
compositions in English. ("My little Portuguese" was actually an affectionate
nickname that Elizabeth's husband used for her in private.) The sequence is
comprised of 44 sonnets, with How do I love thee? appearing in the striking position of number 43, or second-to-last, making it an important part of the climax.
Most critics agree that Barrett Browning wrote the sonnets, not as an abstract
literary exercise, but as a personal declaration of love to her husband,
the sonnets is what led Barrett Browning to create an imaginary foreign origin for
them. But whatever the original motives behind their composition and presentation,
many of the sonnets immediately became famous, establishing Barrett Browning as
an important poet through the 19th and 20th centuries. Phrases from Barrett
Browning's sonnets, especially How do I love thee?, have entered everyday conversation, becoming standard figures of speech even for people who have never
REFERENCES
Abrams, M.H. 1981. The Mirror and the Lamp. London: Oxford University Press. Alexander, L.G. 1967. Poem and Prose Appreciation for Overseas Students. London:
Longman.
Barrows, Majorie Wescott. 1968. The American Exprerience: Poem. New York: Macmillan.
Fananie, Zainudin. 2001. Telaah Sastra. Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta. Field Enterprise Educational Corporation. 1966. The World Books, Encyclopedia.
London.
Frederick, Juliana Tirajoh. 1988. English Poem: An Introduction to Indonesian Students. Jakarta: Depdikbud.
Natsir M. 2007. Poem I. Yogyakarta: Up Published.
Reaske, Christopher Russel. 1966. How to Analyze Poem. New York: Monarch Press.
Sally, S. and James, H. 1989. Research in Education. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc. Schleiermacher, Friedrich. 1977. Hermeneutics: The Handwritten Manuscript,
Missoola: MT: Scholars.
Serayawati, A. A. 2000. Poems for Reading. Unpublished.
Siswantoro. 2002. Apresiasi Puisi-puisi Sastra Inggris. Surakarta:Muhammadiyah University Press.
Sugihastuti. 2002. Teori dan Apresiasi Sastra. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar Offset. Tarigan, henry Guntur. 1984. Prinsip Dasar Sastra, Bandung: Angkasa.
________. 1957. The Barrett of Wimpole Street. Retrieved from
________. 2012. How Do I Love Thee? Analysis. Retrieved from
________. 2015. Summary of how do i love thee. Retreived from
thee-by-elizabeth-barrett-browning (Maret 2015)
________. 2011. Gender roles in the 19th century. Retreived from
the-19th-century (Maret 2015)
________. 1966. Victorian theories of sex and sexuality. Retrieved from
________. 2011. Women in Vitorian Era. Retrieved from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_the_Victorian_era (April
2015)
________. 2012. Biographical Approach to Analyze Literature. Retrieved
from
to-analyze.html
________. 2015. The Lady’s ‘Yes’. Retrieved from
CHAPTER III
METHOD OF THE STUDY
3.1 Research Design
In research method, library research is used in this thesis. The writer uses
library research in applying descriptive qualitative in method of study. Some books
which are related to the topic of this thesis are used. The primary source of the data
acquired from the poems entitled The Lady’s ‘Yes’ and How Do I Love Thee?. First, the writer read the poems as the source of data, the secondary data is drawn from
other books as references which are concerned about woman’s passion in literary
works, and some data that found from the internet are also used as the supporting
references in finishing this thesis. Data will be collected and selected before it is
analyzed. Finally, the conclusion of the data will be made to support the ideas of the
researcher.
In this thesis, the writer used qualitative method since the data is qualitative.
The writer uses qualitative descriptive method in process of writing the thesis.
Qualitative descriptive method is a method of analysis by describing and analyzing
the data and then giving interpretation and explanation. Sally and James (1989: 414)
state qualitative analysis, however, is a systematic process of selecting, categorizing,
comparing, synthesizing, and interpreting to provide explanations of the single
phenomenon of interest. These are data that cannot be expressed in number but in
The writer will do these following steps to write the thesis.
3.2 Data & Data Sources
There are some steps that the writer used in this step. Firstly, the writer read the
poems. Secondly, the writer read some articles that related to the poems which helped the writer to get more information about The Lady’s ‘Yes’ and How Do I Love Thee?. Thirdly, the writer searches some information about woman’s passion in literary works from article, books, and also internet sites to support the topic of this
thesis.
3.3 Data Analyzing
In analyzing the problem of this thesis, the writer combined all the important
data that had been collected from many sources. The writer used kind of library
research and applied the qualitative descriptive method to analyze the problem and
Here is the chart for making it easier to understand research design applied in
the study:
The Writer Library Research:
The writer use Library Research
and qualitative descriptive method
Data:
Primary source of the data are the
poems entitled The Lady’s ‘Yes’
and How Do I Love Thee?.
Secondary source of the data are
some books that related to the study.
Theory:
Conclusion Theory of L.G. Alexander (1932)
CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS AND FINDING
4.1 Passion to be Loved in The Lady’s ‘Yes’ THE LADY’S YES
1. “Yes,” I answered you last night
2. “No,” this morning, Sir, I say
3. Colors seen by candlelight
4. Will not look the same by day
5. When the tabors played their best, 6. Lamps above, and laughs below 7. Love me sounded like a jest 8. Fit for Yes or fit for No
9. Call me false, or call me free
10. Vow, whatever light may shine
11. No man on your face shall see
12. Any grief for change on mine
13. Yet the sin is on us both
14. Time to dance is not to woo
15. Wooer light makes fickle troth
16. Scorn of me recoils on you
17. Learn to win a lady’s faith
18. Nobly, as the thing is high
19. Bravely, as for life and death
21. Lead her from the festive boards
22. Point her to the starry skies
23. Guard her, by your truthfull words
24. Pure from courtships’s flatteries
25. By your truth she shall be true
26. Ever true, as wives of yore
27. And her Yes, one said to you
28. Shall be Yes for evermore
The Lady’s ‘Yes’ was written by Elizabeth Barrett Browning and first published at year 1844. The writer uses criticism approach to derive what the poem is
going to say, the writer tries to get some informations that support the poem but the
informations is to get from out of the poem such as historical background. For the
example, Elizabeth Barrett Browning used poem to explore and challenge traditional
Victorian roles for women, assessing the early influences on her work as expected
from a woman, her utterances are unstable. During the reign of Queen Victoria, a
woman's place was in the home, as domesticity and motherhood were considered by
society at large to be a sufficient emotional fulfilment for females. These constructs
kept women far away from the public in most ways.
The rhyme scheme The Lady’s Yes is ababcdcd efef ghgh ijkl mnmn opop. In
Thelady’s Yes clearly suggests that the poem’s voice is a well-mannered woman. In Browning’s poemThe Lady’s ‘Yes', she ends her poem with the thought provoking stanza. This poem begins with a woman agreeing to spend the night with a man, and
then regrets her decision the next morning. As the poem progresses, Elizabeth tells
society, people do not respect each other and take people for granted. Men are cruel
to women, and husbands fight with their wives. Browning explains that every woman
has same right as man, when a man is true, the woman will be true to him.
Here woman’s passion to be loved in The Lady’s Yes truly will be explained and there are some other passions in this poem. There are passion to have faith and
passion to get the truth in this poem that seems like clue to explain woman’s passions
to be loved truly in The Lady’s ‘Yes’.
a. Passion to have faith in The Lady’s Yes
Actually, everybody has a purpose in their lives, not only men but also the
women. Between men and women need faith. According to Encyclopedia Americana
(1997: 848) faith means confidence and trust in another. Faith comes first but that it
should be followed by good works. The important things in faith are the element of
trust, confidence, surrender, and submission. It means a woman has faith in a man.
Because faith is the key of everything. Faith does not come easily without any effort.
It can be achieved by making a commitment between man and woman. It can be seen
from the following quotation:
Yet the sin is on us both Time to dance is not too woo Wooer light makes fickle troth
Scorn of me recoils on you Learn to win a lady’s faith Nobly, as the thing is high Bravely, as for life and death
With a loyal gravity
(Stanza IV and V; Line 13-20)
That statement shows how the woman gets faith. She tries to get the faith at a
party. Because she knows that faith does not come by itself. So, she must learn and
wooer at party to has faith for her life and death. Actually, there is only one disturber
at a party. It is the wooer.
b. Passion to get the truth in The Lady’s Yes
Truth means the quality or state of being true. Based on the explanation
above, the truth is rarely pure and never simple. It means that truth is complicated.
To tell the truth to someone is not easy as turning over the palm of the hand. It needs
a process to do so. Moreover, the genuine truth is not merely the real truth. It is the
matter of subjectivity and importance, from which side we sight the truth itself. Hence, we may say that there is no objective truth. Since the only way we can see it through our individual perceptions. In this poem, the woman wants to tell us that she
has a passion to find out the truth. She knows that to find the truth is not easy. It can
be seen from the following quotation:
Lead her from the festive boards Point her to the starry skies Guard her, by your truth full words
Pure from courtships flatteries By your truth she shall be true
Ever true, as wives of yore And her Yes one said to you
Shall be Yes for evermore
(Stanza VI and VII; Line 21-28)
From the quotation above, we can see the woman is really looking for the
truth and she is always trying to find it. She is looking for the truth by her truthful
words.
From the analysis above, it can be concluded that a similar freedom of choice
as well as the ability for women to change their mind to convincingly argue for the
equality between genders, particularly in a marriage in the poem, The Lady’s Yes. Barrett Browning sought not only to assert her right to be a poet, but to be a poet who
industrialisation, slavery, religious controversy, the manipulation of power, and the
fight for liberty on numerous fronts.
c. Woman’s Passions to be loved truly in The Lady’s Yes
The Lady’s Yes describe how the revolutionary concept of a woman behaving candidly, therefore causing a social commentary of the double standard of
expectations for a woman to have any sexual tinge to her feelings or stray from the
traditional, societal norms. It is revealed in the first line and second line. Her
utterances: Yes and No are considered paradoxical.
“Yes,” I answered you last night “No,” this morning, Sir, I say
Colors seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day
(Stanza I; Line 1-4)
Actually, it explains many things, it is probably not about woman’s instability
but to know the mind state, the writer goes further to the second stanza. The writer
believes the first stanza is about retelling her actions last night and this morning.
Yet the sin is on us both Time to dance is not to woo Wooer light makes fickle troth
Scorn of me recoils on you!
(Stanza IV; Line 13-16)
In this poem, the speaker is a woman. What to know next is her attitude of
expressing her feeling. From the poem’s form, her tone can be guessed from the bold
woman gives emphasizes in those bold words. There are some parts in which the
woman expresses her strong feeling.
There are indications as cursing sentence. The bold word you describes as if she is pointing to the man whom she cursed, the man who scorned her. It can be
assumed that the woman is upset. The bold word in:
By your truth she shall be true Ever true, as wives of yore And her Yes, once said to you
Shall be Yes for evermore
(Stanza VII; Line 25-28)
Her current state of mind is now clear; she is a calm dignified woman who is
disturbed by a man’s attitude. It is presumably because the man wants her to be his
girl. Although the state of mind is clearly defined, it is not known yet whether the
man is the one to be blamed or not. The woman’s responses further is also still
vague.
In the first stanza the woman in this poem wants to explain that last night, this
gentleman asks her a question, and she told him yes. The next morning she changes her mind to no. Things look different after step back from the excitement and have had time to reflect on them.
“Yes,” I answered you last night “No,” this morning, Sir, I say
Colours seen by candlelight Will not look the same by day
(Stanza I; Line 1-4)
The first stanza tell the woman’s unstable answers. The man asked her
something important, revealed at the man wants the woman to be his girl. The
When the tabors played their best Lamps above, and laughs below
Love me sounded like a jest Fit for Yes or fit for No
(Stanza II; Line 5-8)
There was music (tabors are drums) and a party. They may have been upstairs
laughs below. Everything was happy and exciting, and amid all that, when he said
love me, it sounded like a joke, like something of no consequence. Her answer wasn't meant to be taken in complete seriousness.
Tabor is a small drum played with one hand while the other hand plays a
pipe. Tabors were used especially in the `Middle Ages. The word first appearance
was in the 13th century, derived from Old French word tabour. It looks like this word is used as a filler for explaining other important keywords. The author uses
personification in first and second line of this stanza that explain about the essence of
good manner which always lies in a higher respected position than bad manner. She
reckons something funny or enjoyable as a bad manner. What she mentions here is
not like comedy or entertainment but humiliating manner. The man proposed her in
such an unconvincing way that she considered it as a joke, because of doing this as a
joke, she takes it lightly whether she wants to say yes or no at the moment.
Call me false, or calll me free Vow, whatever light may shine No man on your face shall see
Any grief for change on mine
(Stanza III; Line 9-12)
Stanza III explains, that whatever that way is something viewed may be direct
light of something. No man on man unpleasant facial expression will realize
something by seeing. Any intense sorrow for making or becoming different on her as
She changes her mind and says she doesn't love him. He may thinks she's just
a broad fickle coquette who will sleep with or flirt with anybody. Whatever, she
doesn't care. She just wants to make sure that nobody is able to tell what happened
and do not let anyone see her anger or disappointed because she changes her mine.
Yet the sin is on us both Time to dance is not to woo Wooer light makes fickle troth
Scorn of me recoils on you
(Stanza IV; Line 13-16)
The following stanza is the effect of taking the man’s proposal lightly. The
woman’s final response is to refuse the man’s proposal so that the man’s feeling
must be hurt. However, the woman tells him not to reveal his sorrow towards the
other men. Here, she says that is their fault. Dancing and party is not a good time for
true courtship. So if he scorns her for saying yes and then changing her mind, he
should understand that it's partly his fault, too. He shouldn't have pursued her then.
She shows some regret in playing a joke by saying Yet the sin is on us both. Nevertheless, she makes a justification which positions the man in a stronger
“who-to-blame” person (line 2 and 3 of fourth stanza). At the last line in this stanza, she
cursed the man that all of his actions are soon return to himself.
Learn to win a lady’s faith Nobly, as the thing is high Bravely, as for life and death
With the loyal gravity Lead her from the festive boards
Point her to the starry skies Guard her, by your truthfull words
Pure from courtship’s flatteries
(Stanza V and VI; Line 17-24)
poem’s way of telling in this stanza. If stanza I-IV retells her story regarding the
woman’s rejection to a man’s proposal, stanza V-VII tells about the woman’s advice
to man. It is about how to treat a lady and win her. The woman suggests that every
man should earn woman’s trust in order to win her love. The trust can be earned by
having excellent moral character and courage of life and death with a faithful
seriousness.
By your truth she shall be true Ever true, as wives of yore And her Yes, one said to you
Shall be Yes for evermore
(Stanza VII; Line 25-28)
The last stanza is the conclusion of stanza IV and stanza V-VI. For stanza
I-IV, to inform hints that should be given by the man to make the woman accept his
proposal. For stanza V and VI, the last stanza is to reveal the benefit of the woman’s
advice. If man earns woman trust then she shall be true to a man. Then if man asks
woman for her love, man can be sure that woman truly means it when she says yes.
Shall be acceptance for from now until the end of time or the end of somebody’s life.
Thus, the word you here has double meaning; refers to the man who proposed her to be his girl and every man who reads her advice.
By looking at the above elaborations, the poem at least have two parts of
meaning. The first meaning is the story of a lady who refused a man’s proposal. The
second meaning is the advices of a woman towards men about how to win their love.
In this poem, the poet’s effort is to characterize the lady as a noblewoman.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning was always interested in the position of women
in society, and throughout her career she wrote challengingly and combatively about
Mary Wollstonecraft, whose controversial book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) emphasised the ways in which middle-class women were denied any proper education and were therefore made unfit for meaningful roles in society. It
was Published in 1792, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was the first great
feminist treatise. Wollstonecraft preached that intellect will always govern and
sought to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body,
and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of
sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonimouswith epithets of weakness.
Another of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s main points in her poem is that men
are deceivers. This idea corresponds to many things in the Victorian period of how
women were treated and viewed by men. Men falsely flattered women into marriage;
they thought that they could easily manipulate them into being their property. Men
also tricked women into thinking that their position in society was respectable and
natural.
Women were taught that it was normal for their place to be in the home,
married and raising children. Elizabeth’s poem shows that women were not as
content with their position in society as men assumed that they were. Women were
tired of being treated as though a man’s proposal was the greatest honor that they
were capable of receiving, and that they barely deserved even that. Browning shows
that women were aware of their position in society and that they were not fooled by
4.2 Passion to Love in How Do I Love Thee? HOW DO I LOVE THEE
1. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
2. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
3. My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
4. For the ends of being and ideal grace 5. I love thee to the level of every day’s
6. Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light
7. I love thee freely, as men strive for right
8. I love thee purely, as they turn from praise
9. I love thee with the passion put to use
10. In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith
11. I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
12. With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath 13. Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose
14. I shall but love thee better after death
Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) wrote a series of 44 sonnets, in
secret, about the intense love she felt for her husband-to-be, poet Robert Browning.
She called this series Sonnets From the Portuguese, a title based on the pet name Robert gave her: "my little Portugee." Sonnet 43 was the next-to-last sonnet in this
series. A love poem with first eight lines (octave) pose a problem and the last six
lines (sestet) solves the problem. In composing her sonnets, she had two types of
(1304-1374) and the English model popularized by Shakespeare (1564-1616). She
chose Petrarch's model.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning in her love sonnet How Do I Love Thee
beautifully expresses her love for her husband. Listing the different ways in which
Elizabeth loves her beloved, she also insists that if God permits her she will continue
loving the love of her life even after her death.
The rhyme scheme of "Sonnet 43" is as follows: Lines 1 to 8—abba, abba;
lines 9 to 14—cd, cd, cd. The first eight lines of a Petrarchan sonnet are called an
octave; the remaining six lines are called a sestet. The octave presents the theme of
the poem; the sestet offers a solution if there is a problem, provides an answer if
there is a question, or simply presents further development of the theme. In
Browning's Sonnet 43, the octave draws analogies between the poet's love; the sestet
draws analogies between the intensity of love she felt while writing the poem and the
intensity of love she experienced earlier in her life. Then it says that she will love her
husband-to-be even more after death, God permitting.
The subject matter is that love is not an earthly concept but an eternal,
everlasting thing that lasts well beyond the cold grave. The poem is not related to
how she loves or why, but just the way in which she does so freely and purely. They had never met but they were just expressing how much they loved each other and this
is one of the love poems that they shared. She defines herself with the ways she loves
Robert. This actually makes this poem very sensitive. Besides her love to Robert, she
actually has admires him. The poem begins with a question, and answers it. The main
point is the author's desire to tell us how much she loves him with all her heart. The
Reader will immediately understand the greatness of the intensity of
Elizabeth's love. The poem contains internal rhymes that tells us Elizabeth loves
Robert with every dimension of her entity. His love sustains her and that’s why she
needs him. She tells that she loves him with the blind faith of a child. It explains that
she had lost believing in holy things after growing up. However, Robert has
awakened her spirit in a way that she has again begun to reaffirm her belief in all the
things holy. He is her savior and means the whole world to her. There is passion,
excitement and spontaneity in her love. Also, she has a big hope that her love will
transcend the boundaries of time, space, life and death; it will live forever. She hopes
that only something as violent and destructive as death will strengthen her passion.
Here the writer will explain about passion to love in How Do I Love Thee?
but firstly the writer will explain about passion of love that found in this poetry until
knowing woman’s passions to love in How Do I Love Thee?.
a. Passion of Love in How Do I love Thee?
Love is a matter of giving and taking, of mutual responding and reciprocal
interaction. Love involves a sharing and returning. Most humanist would agree that
love is a necessary ingredient in our lives. Maslow in Warga (1983: 318) made love
and intimacy one of the prerequisites of achieving self-actualization, the realization
of one full potential. Obviously, Maslow felt that it is possible to live a life without
love, but that such a life is one a rather low plane of existence. This experience of
love is possibly different from other experiences, yet few people are able to achieve
or maintain it. Most people have serious, however, unattended problems that
specifically involve love. In this poem, Elizabeth wants to tell that woman has an
about her passion how to love her husband. She believes that her dream would come
true. It can be seen from the following quotation:
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace
(Line 2-4)
From the quotation above, we can see that she really loves someone. She
describes love with any ways which is from the depth, breadth and height. It means she loves him from the bottom of her heart. She can reach everything she wants, even
though her feeling can not be seen by someone she loved. She was doing everything
because it is only for her ideal grace.
Love is a strong process of examination in human life. With true love in
everybody, it is the biggest motivation for a woman to have passion. Without love,
humans will not get a support to achieve their aims.
So, love is the dominant factor to achieve her desire. According to Warga
(1983: 313), love is a strong fondness or enthusiasm for something. Based on the
explanation above, I can deliver the factor or reason that triggers of the woman in the
poems. We can notice the explanation about it clearly below.
I love thee to the level of every day’s Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light
I love thee freely, as men strive for right I love thee purely, as they turn fro praise I love thee with the passion put to use
(Line 5-9)
From the quotation above, love is the strong factor or reason for a woman.
The woman really loves someone. So, It can be the reason to get her passion
especially passion to love her husband.
The poem uses the hyperbole, It is showed in the fourth line of last stanza:
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath
The poet shows her love toward a particular person by saying I love thee with the breath. It means she will give everything including her breath, in this case means she is ready to death for him. It also means she cannot live without breath as well as
she cannot live without him. This is a hyperbole because showing love to someone
usually only showed by giving attention and affection instead of giving life. It is also
showed in the last line of last stanza :
I shall but love thee better after death
(Line 14)
The poet stated that her love is unending like what she wrote through the last
line in her poem, she will love her special person even after she died. This statement
is a hyperbole because, it expresses someone’s love when people are still alive, not
until after people die.
The major subject matter of this poem is love. The poet talks about the
emotion of love and she is exploring the different aspects of that emotion. In the
poem, she shows love from a variety of perspectives. She talks about love being a
quiet, everyday sort of thing. But she also talks about love being a passionate thing.
People who had loved another for a long period of time knowing that there are all
sorts of different aspects of this emotion. The poet is bringing these aspects out in
this poem.
Overall, this poem describes about the ways Elizabeth loves her husband.
That’s why she uses diction how instead of why. It is because she won’t describe
about the reason why she loves him since loving someone doesn’t need any reason.
The way she loves him can be measured by the depth, breadth, and height. She loves him eternally, until the end of her life even after she died. She loves him anytime,
She loves him with her breath, and always share happiness and sadness in her life
with him.
b. Woman’s passions to love in How Do I Love Thee?
How Do I Love Thee is a sensitive poem because of the reason that the poet here defines herself only in the ways she loves Robert. Love is portrayed to be
intangible; it can even be felt even after one settles in the cold grave.
Love according to Elizabeth is not an earthly concept because she loves freely
and purely without thinking about the why’s and how’s of love and its future possibilities. Though both the lovers never met but still they express their love for
each other by the means of sharing poems and this is obviously one of the poems
they shared in the moments of their love.
Defining her love, by using a spatial metaphor, Elizabeth’s love extends to
heights of all the lengths and breadth that her pure soul could possibly reach. She expresses her love for her husband to be from every part of her soul.
How Do I Love Thee is undoubtedly a simple poem but it has a deep hidden meaning. Love is eternal, unconquerable and the highest power in the world.
Elizabeth loves her husband to be on a daily basis instead of loving him for a few
passionate moments. Her love is not a slave to momentary passion and this is proved
because she is in love with Robert without even meeting him. The poetess by no
means is seeking appraisal by the readers she is fully controlled by the emotion of
love both internally and externally. She has completely lost control over her body,
Elizabeth is also feels on the fact that someone does not have to pretend that
they are morally or ethically good and goodness is completely a matter of one’s own
choice. Pure love and dedication are the two pillars on which this poem stands and
once again the poem proves the most cherished notion that love is eternal and it is
unaware of any boundaries.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways
(Line 1)
In first line starting with the title How Do I Love Thee, already tells us that the poem is a love poem. The title also shows that the author is going to express to
what extent of love they feel for the person they wrote the poem for.It shows that the
author loves her significant other in many different ways. The poet dedicates the rest
of the poem to answering her own question and expressing the ways in which she
loves her partner.
The author shows the question that's going to drive the entire poem: how does
she love thee, the man she loves?. She decides to count the ways in which she loves him throughout the rest of the poem.
Now, these all might seem pretty straightforward after all, the line is simply
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. But the writer wants to point out that deciding to count the ways you love someone does seem a bit, calculating. The speaker's initial decision to count types of love is intriguing. For her, love is the best
expressed by making a list, and that just seems weird to other people.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace
In this phrase she is talking about how deep her love is for him. She is
basically saying that her love is physical and also spiritual at the same time. That the
love she has for him is in her soul body and mind. She loves him till she doesn’t exist
anymore; she loves him as the perfect gift, the perfect guy for her.
The speaker describes her love using a spatial metaphor: her love extends to
the depth and breadth and height that her soul can reach. It's interesting to think of love as a three-dimensional substance filling the container of her soul.
The sense that the speaker is stretching out with both arms, trying to explain
how broad and wide and deep her love is. It's a much more poetic version of saying
"I love you THIS MUCH" with arms flung wide. True love overcomes all and is
eternal in nature.
True love can be profound, deep and moving. There is hope that great love
exists beyond the grave; that a truly great love never die.
I love thee to the level of every day's Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light
(Line 5-6)
In line 5 and 6 she expresses her love for him by saying just as we have our
basic needs to survive, she has his love. For her, his love is one of her basic needs,
like air and water, and she needs it day and night. The poem become much more
grounded and down-to-earth in the description of the next way to love. As the
speaker explains, she loves her lover to the level of everyday's or most quiet need.
This is a reminder that, even though she loves him with a passionate, abstract
It's important, however, that it doesn't mean the love is any less significant.
The everyday need for love may be quiet, but it's definitely there. These are some of the only lines in this poem that actually use concrete imagery. She completes the
description of this everyday love with two images of light: by sun and candle-light. Basically, this is just a way of saying "in the day and at night," or it’s also the way of
saying that Elizabeth needs her husband just like humans need sun as a light in life,
but it also reminds us that the lovers are looking at each other all the time and that
the speaker here loves her beloved no matter what light she sees him in.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right I love thee purely, as they turn from praise
(Line 7-8)
These lines use anaphora, beginning with the same phrase I love thee, as do lines two, five, nine and eleven. This parallel structure emphasizes that the poem is in
many ways a catalog or list of ways of loving, rather than an extended argument. The poet also represents her love to her special person using simile. She uses ‘as’ to
compare it. She compares her free love as men who strive for right. She also compares her pure love as those men who turn from praise.
She loves him freely as if not by force or obligation but by her own free will. She is saying that she loves him purely for love and not the praises or benefits from love. The poet loves with her whole soul. She loves him for fulfilling her completely,
every hour of the day. She loves him without asking for flattery or praise. She loves
him with all the emotion she experienced, with a love she believes, with God’s will,
Besides of that, the word freely here can be interpreted as a woman is free to choose and loving man she wants. It is inversely proportional to the reality of women
in the Victorian Era women were seen, by the middle classes at least, as belonging to
the domestic sphere, and this stereotype required them to provide their husbands with
a clean home, food on the table and to raise their children. Women’s rights were
extremely limited in this era, losing ownership of their wages, all of their physical
property, excluding land property, and all other cash they generated once married.
When a Victorian man and woman married, the rights of the woman were legally
given over to her spouse. Under the law the married couple became one entity where
the husband would represent this entity, placing him in control of all property,
earnings and money. In addition to losing money and material goods to their
husbands, Victorian wives became property to their husbands, giving them rights to
what their bodies produced; children, sex and domestic labour. Marriage abrogated a
woman’s right to consent to sexual intercourse with her husband, giving him
‘ownership’ over her body. Their mutual matrimonial consent therefore became a
contract to give herself to her husband as he desired.
Rights and privileges of Victorian women were limited, and both single and
married women had hardships and disadvantages they had to live with. Victorian
women had disadvantages both financially and sexually, enduring inequalities within
their marriages and social statuses, distinct differences in men and women’s rights
took place during this Era. Providing men with more stability, financial status and
power over their homes and women. Marriages for Victorian women became
contracts, one which was extremely difficult if not impossible to get out of during the
to change rights and privileges, however, many Victorian women endured their
husbands control, cruelty targeted against their wives; including sexual violence,
verbal abuse and economic deprivation and were given no way out. While husbands
participated in affairs with other women wives endured infidelity as they had no
rights to divorce on these grounds and their divorce was considered to be a social
taboo.
Elizabeth tells, I love thee freely, as men strive for right. She is implying that
men strive for right in a "free" way. That is, trying to be morally good isn't something anyone has to do, it's something they choose to do of their own free will.
Everything men do is a choice, but in another way, a men try to do the right thing
because they think they ought to. So, if her love is just as "free" as being ethically
good, maybe it's something she feels she has to do, even when she doesn't want to.
Next, the speaker tells us, I love thee purely, as they turn from praise. That is, her love is "pure" in the way that being modest and refusing everyone else's
admiration is pure.
Perhaps the speaker is also implying that she is not proclaiming her love in
order to be applauded by her readers. She is not seeking praise for writing a great
poem about love, she loves without wanting any reward or commendation.
I love thee with the passion put to use In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith
(Line 9-10)
First the writer needs to explain what old griefs are. Thinking about an incident in the past that still feel really angry about. Now imagine if people could use
all the "passion" and intensity of that bitter feeling and convert it somehow into love.
The speaker of this poem is saying "I love you with all the energy I used to
spend being bitter about stuff in my past.” The speaker also claims that she loves her
beloved with my childhood's faith. Of course, just as the previous metaphor seems to inject an odd kind of bitterness and anger into the world of love, this metaphor seems
to bring with it connotations of simplicity.
With my lost saints, I love thee with the breath Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death
(Line 12-14)
The poet shows her love toward a particular person by saying I love thee with the breath. It means she will give everything including her breath, and she is ready to put her life to death. It means she cannot live without his breath as well as she can
not live without him. This indicates a hyperbole because it shows love to someone
that usually only expressed by giving attention and affection instead of giving life.
It is also showed in I shall but love thee better after death. The poet states that her love is unending looks like what she writes through the last line in her poem that she
will love her special person even after she died. This statement is also a hyperbole
because it expose someone’s love after the death.
If God intends to put both in heaven, or both in hell, at least they will be able
to be with each other in order to love after death. After death, if it is even physically
possible and if God chooses her to have the ability, then she will choose to love
Robert more after her death.
She is confessing her love for him so strong that she loves him with the life
through the happy and sad times in her life. She loves him so dearly that even after
death, beyond the grave if god will allow it, she will still love him forever more.
Going back in history, this poem was published in 1850 but written in
between 1844-1845. Elizabeth Browning married Robert Browning in 1846, the man
to whom the poem was written for. Elizabeth wrote love poems to escape her
childhood, her dad which had her under key and chain and refused to allow his
children to marry. The poem is among many she has written for her beloved husband
pouring out her love. They died still in love with each other, still together. Who
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION 5.1 Conclusion
After analyzing two poems of Elizabeth Barret Browning, the writer found
how woman’s passions to be loved pictured in The Lady’s Yes and how woman’s passions to love pictured in How Do I Love Thee.
1. The Lady’s Yes describe how woman treated by a man. Elizabeth wants to tell that not all women are easy to be seduced and accept any offer of men just as
well with her. Every woman has any right to be loved not only as a tools for
satisfy a man’s sexual as was the case in that era. In this poem also described
how a woman feels hesitant to change her mind from the man’s offer, but she
also realized that all that happens is not entirely man’s false but also on
herself and Elizabeth finally gives some advices to men how to win woman’s
heart bravely and sincerely.
2. How do I love thee? is a poem that explain Elizabeth affection for her husband. She writes about it to show to the world and Robert Browning the
love which hold her heart through her true words. Her love is of the kind
which pulls the poet out of faithlessness. When she is with her love she feels
the same sense of security which she felt when she was a kid. The poet is
taken back to that childhood faith of hers after falling in love with her
soul-mate. Next the poet talks about the intensity of her affection. She says that
her love is present in every breath that she takes. This means she lives to love.
Her love emanates from all her smiles and tears which tell the readers that she
loves her soul mate through both good and trying times. He is there with her
on a very deep feeling. She says that the love which she feels is immortal and
if she is allowed by God she would continue loving her beloved even after
death and in her afterlife.
Actually, from the analysis readers can also understand what factor that
trigger the woman’s passions in the poems. There are some factors can be identified
in the poems as love is a strong factor or reason to do her passions. If the readers
want to know the meaning that is embedded in the poem, they should dive or
experience the poems. So, they will know the meaning and sense which are implied
5.2 Suggestion
Furthermore, in this good chance, the writer would like to suggest those who
are interested in literature especially poetry to read more about Victorian poetry
because Elizabeth is one of the most popular Victorian poets with some phenomenal
works. Through Elizabeth Browning’s poem, the writer wants to convey that
womens also have their rights to be loved truly and explain how women’s passion to
love men.
Finally, the writer hopes that this thesis will be useful and be a precious
knowledge for all, especially for the students of English Department, University of
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Poem
There are many branches of literary works as short stories, novels, poems,
and dramas. All of them become the main discussion and teaching topics in school
and university levels. Before people attempt to define poem, they need to analyze
every line to understand meanings behind the poem. Some words are more definable
than others. A poem has deep meanings in every words, it depends how a poet tries
to explain many things in life into a poem. People try to analyze poem because in a
poem contains many specific elements and how these specific elements relate to
daily life. A theme is the top point in a poem, because a poet makes a poem based on
specific theme and a reader tries to understand and analyze the poem to get the whole
point of the poem. Once a poem is understood at its firsthand, a reader can try to
define it.
Samuel Johnson as cited by tarigan (1984: 5) describes that “the poem as
spontaneous expression of feelings, which full of power and based on emotion get
together in peace”. From the explanation above, the writer can say that a poem is an
expressing deep feeling which is full of power and based on emotion that the writer
has experienced. Yet, the power embedded inside the poem is not easily being
understood by reading it at once.
Speaking about poem, the World Book Encyclopedia (1966: 563) explains
that “many people find rich rewards in the magic of words that capture thought, the
felt, all joys and sorrow- all these belong to poem”. How beautiful a poem is, if only
we can understand inside the use of imageries in beauty of the poem itself.
Therefore, all the components of a poem can make special enjoyment for the readers
itself. Then they can judge, whether the poem is beautiful, amusing, interesting, full
of hatred or emotion or full of pleasure.
2.2 Structuralism Theory
There are many theories that can support in analyzing literary works.
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poems can also be approached with several theories.
However, the precise approach to solve the research problem is using structuralism in
literature approach. Structuralism is an approach that analyses and describes the
structure of language, as distinguished from its comparative and historical aspects
become a total meaning. Structuralism in literature has many theories, but the writer
does not use all of them to answer my problem statement.
To understand about structuralism theory, there is an approach to literature
that was developed from a Hermeneutic concept since the year of 1819 by Friedrich
Schleirmacher. Thus, the concept was developed by Wilhelm Dilthey in 1890.
Hermeneutic concept is the way to receive objective literary works. Structuralism is
the way of thinking about the world, especially in relation between perception and
description in structure (Hawkes,as quoted by Fananie 2001: 114-116).
He also states that there are three points in structuralism. They are wholeness,
transformation, and self-knowledge. Wholeness means that analyzing a literary work
intrinsic elements are used; like theme, imagery, tone. Transformation means that
structure can be able to do a procedure to make something new. Self-knowledge
Teeuw, as quoted by Fananie (2001:114) states that assumption in literary
work has a subpart to analyze. Hermeneuitic concept is a science to interpret and to
express the meaning of story in the broad meaning. The process of interpreting
enables to assume or convention that the texts whose read have wholeness, unity,
complexity, and coherence.
2.3 Historical Approach
One of the most basic approaches used in the analysis of literary work refers
to the historical method of literary criticism. In line with this, (Russell 1966: 52)
assures that the critic interprets the poem within the history, or contemporary frame
of reference, behind the poem. A historical approach analyses literary work
according to its history. It is based on the historical set up of the time the work was
done. In other words, historical approach is one of the methods to analyze literary
work in which the author and the reader comprehend the message of the literary
work by remembering the moment/historic moment a long with the literary work
written.
This approach sees a literary work chiefly, if not exclusively, as a reflection
of its author's life and times or the life and times of the characters in the work.
Therefore, there are at least four steps in utilizing this approach:
1. Discovering the time when the poem was made, what happened to the author in
that time, or is there any special moment in that time which is recorded by historian.
2. Analyzing at glance whether it is connected or not between the content of the
literary work and the certain historical moments after finding out the basic
3. Finding the clues left by the author, usually in the forms of special terms, symbols,
or figurative languages which are strongly related to the moment of the past which
become the inspiration of the literary work was being made.
4. Interpreting the literary work based on the moment underlying the creation of it by
comprehending and analyzing the content related to its historical moment.
2.4 Biographical Approach
According to Christopher Russell Reaske (1966), Biography is a detailed
description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts (education,
work, relationships, and death), biography also portrays the subject's experience of
those events. Unlike a profile or curriculum vitae, a biography presents the subject's
life story, highlighting various aspects of his or her life, including intimate details of
experience, and may include an analysis of the subject's personality.
Biographical approach examines the literary work in relation to the author’s
life. And often a particular poem or song is subject to this kind of analysis simply by
nature of its material in relation to the background of the author's personal
experience. Understanding the social structure or way of life of a certain time period
give the reader a greater knowledge base from which to draw conclusions and better
understand the meaning. Discovering details about the author's life and times also
provide similar ways to further develop ideas about the story. In another wods,
biographical approach is an approach used to understand and comprehend a literary
2.5 Devices
In writing a poem, a poet uses devices. According to Alexander (1963:15)
devices may be divided into three groups:
2.5.1 The Structural Devices
There are three structural devices of poem: Contrast, Illustration, and
Repetition. Structural devices indicate the way of the whole poem has been built and
become apparent as soon as the meaning of the poem has been found.
1. Contrast
Contrast is a structure occurs when there are two completely opposite picture
side by side. It is one of the most common of all structural devices. Sometimes the
contrast is immediately obvious and sometimes implied.
2. Illustration
Illustration is a structure which usually takes the form of a vivid picture by
which a poet may make an idea clear.
3. Repetition
Repetition is a structure occurs repeat single lines or whole stanzas at
intervals to emphasize a particular idea. Repetition is to be found in poem which
is aimed at special musical effects or when a poet wants to pay very close
2.5.2 The Sense Devices
There are three sense devices of poem: Simile, Metaphor, and
Personification.
1. Simile
Simile and metaphor are very special devices indeed. Their particular effect
lies in the way apparently unrelated objects or ideas are brought together. A poet
often compels to fix attention on one object while comparing it with another. It
may be said that the quality of a poet often depends on his ability to bring together
objects and ideas which are unconnected. Simile is a direct comparison and can be
recognized by the use of words ‘like’ and ‘as’.
2. Metaphor
Metaphor is rather like a simile except that the comparison is not direct but
implied the words ‘like’ and ‘as’ are not used. The poet does not say that one
object is like another, he says it is another.
3. Personification
Personification is a sense device occurs when dead objects are given a human
form, or when they are made to speak.
2.5.3 The Sound Devices
There are five sound devices of poem: Alliteration, Rhyme and Rhythm. All
of them add considerably to the musical quality of a poem has when it is read aloud.
1. Alliteration
Alliteration is the repetition of the same sound at frequent intervals.
2. Rhyme
Rhyme is sound repetition occurs at line endings in poem and consists of
words which have the same sound; the letters preceding the vowel, must,
however, be unlike in sound.
3. Rhythm
Rhythm is a pattern of sounds which a poet imposes on the language he uses.
It is the most striking of all sound devices. When a poem is read aloud, it is nearly
always possible to notice that the sounds used follow a definite pattern and are
meant to appeal to the ear. It has much in common with music. A poem may be
reduced to a meaningles jingle if the sound does not closely match the sense. The
rhythm of a poem must always help to convey the poet’s intention and give some
indication of his mood.
2.6 Types of Poem
For common people, poem may be uninteresting, difficult to understand and
confusing. In fact, it is not fully true, because enjoying poem does not mean having
to read and understand it. In reading any poem no matter how simple or complicated,
it is better to read it slowly, without making generalization.
In book Poem and Prose Appreciation for Overseas Studies by L.G.
Alexander(1963:23) there are five types of poem: Descriptive, Reflective, Narrative
and Sonnet.
1. Descriptive Poem
Descriptive poem is a poem which describe people or experiences, scenes or
2. Reflective Poem
Reflective poem is a thoughtful poem often contains a great deal of
description which the poet comments on or from which he draws conclusions.
Sometimes these conclusions are directly stated, at other times implied.
3. Narrative Poem
Narrative poem is a poem which tells a story. It tends to be longer than other
types of poem but it is comparatively easy to recognize the poet’s intention.
4. Sonnet
Sonnet is a poem of fourteen lines which follows a very strict rhyme pattern.
It is usually divided into two parts: the ‘octave’ (the first eight lines), and the
‘sestet’ (the last six lines). The octave and sestet are separated by a break in
thought: a general statement made in the octave is illustrated or amplified in the
sestet. Sonnet tends to be difficult because a great deal of meaning is often
conveyed in a few lines.There are three main types of Sonnet: the Petrarchan, the
Shakespearean and the Miltonic.
a. The Petrarchan Sonnet
This is the strictest of the three types since only two rhymes are
permitted in the octave and not more than three in the sestet. The octave is
rhymed a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a and the sestet c-d-e-c-d-e (if three rhymes are used)
and c-d-c-d-c-d (if two rhymes are used).
b. The Shakespearean Sonnet
Though this type of sonnet is also divided into octave and sestet, it has a
much simpler rhyme pattern. It is really a poem consists of three stanzas each
rhyming lines, called ‘a rhyming couplet’. The pattern as follows:
a-b-a-b-c-d-c-d-e-f-e-f-g-g.
c. The Miltonic Sonnet
This has the same rhyme scheme as the Petrarchan sonnet but differs in
one important respect: There is no break in thought between the octave and
sestet.
2.7 Elements of Poem
Like other kinds of literature such as drama and prose fiction, poem also has
its elements, but the elements are different from the elements of drama and prose
fiction. According to Juliana Tirajoh (1988: 17-54), Serayawati (2000: 4), and
Barrows (1968: 12-16) elements of poem can be divided as follows:
2.7.1 Form
Form is the organization, arrangement, or structure of a work of art. It
imposes a close relationship between words and meaning, between the words that are
used and the effect that the poet is striving for. In working out of a poem, the poet
must consider the effect he wishes to create. The form of poem includes:
1. Rhythm
Rhythm is the recurrence of accented and unaccented syllables in a regular or
nearly regular line. It is created by the patterns of repeated sounds in terms of both
duration and quality, and ideas. Rhythm implies alternation; something is here, then
it is replaced by something else, and then the first thing returns.
According to the Greek word, “rhytmos” means “to flow”. In poem, the
sound, stress, pitch, syllables, and pattern of the language directly control the idea
and feeling expressed in the poem.
Poets use rhythm because of four reasons:
a. To increase enjoyment of the sounds of the language
b. To highlight and emphasize specific words
c. To achieve a dramatic effect, and
d. To suggest the word of the poem.
Rhythm is often used to give the listener or reader the feeling of being
involved with the poem’s action. In simple way, rhythm is the reoccurrence of
accented and unaccented syllables in or nearly regular pattern.
2. Stanza
Stanza is a group of verse, generally four or more, arranged according to a
fixed pattern.
There are several names of stanzas:
a. Couplet consist of 2 lines,
b. Triplet consists of 3 lines,
c. Quatrain consists of 4 lines,
d. Quinted consists of 5 lines,
e. Sestet consists of 6 lines, and
3. Rhyme
Rhyme is the identity of sounds in accented syllables and of all vowels and
consonants sounds following. The term rhyme is ordinarily used in words occurring
at the end of matching lines of poem.
4. Line
Line is a succession of feet which usually begins with a capital letter. Line
includes, for example, monometer, diameter, trimeter, tetrameter, and so on.
2.7.2 Language
Every kind of literature both written or spoken can not be separated from
language. In poem, language is used by the poet as a medium of expression, and may
be structured and shaped to communicate a particular meaning and effect. Poets have
no special group of words reserved for them. Rather it is their use of language that
transforms even the simplest word into something special, something remembered. A
poet organizes language into forms and images.
In short, language of poem does not only function to gather the visual
conceptual sense but at the same time both of them are linked to each other. In all
short of extra ways, through the operation of parallelism and contrast, repetition, and
variations, language in poem can be divided into some terms:
1. Diction (choice of words)
Diction is the selection of words used in poem. A poet should always try to
select the words which most appropriately convey the intended meaning. Some
ideas or say something. And yet, the most impressive idea in the world will not make
a poem unless its words are selected arranged, rearranged. Any wor
