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A Declaration Of Undying Love

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A Declaration of Undying Love Poetry is oftentimes associated with the subjects of love and romance. Poets throughout the ages have used this medium to express their deepest emotions in the most eloquent of ways. Whether the poet is a man or woman is irrelevant. Poets of both genders have succeeded in expressing a heartfelt love to another with a poetic language that speaks volumes in a relatively short amount of text. Two poets from two separate eras each wrote a poem with just such a theme. Anne Bradstreet in “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and Edgar Allan Poe in “Annabel Lee” created magic by writing these poems that express a love for another that transcends time and place. In order to understand the depth behind both poets’ …show more content…

Jeannine Johnson concurs, confirming, “The poet argues that wisdom and age do not determine one 's power to love deeply and honestly. Even though Annabel and her lover were young, the speaker contends that their feelings surpassed those of all others” (1). In matters of love, age is an insignificant factor for those who cannot see past the passion in each other’s eyes. While Poe’s poem is a lengthy venture into love and loss, Bradstreet’s poem is quite a short offering at first glance. The poet, however, immediately grasps the reader’s attention with the very first line in the poem, writing, “If ever two were one, then surely we” (1). Immediately, the reader can envision a union that is not made up of two separate individuals, but of the two that become one because of the love they share. Poe, on the other hand, uses another tactic in piquing the interest of the reader. He begins his poem in a manner that is very reminiscent of a fairy tale: “It was many and many a year ago / In a kingdom by the sea” (1-2). It is not until the last two lines of the first stanza that the narrator declares a love, very much like the one Bradstreet described, by stating, “And this maiden she lived with no other thought / Than to love and be loved by me” (5-6). The reader can already sense the profound love that envelops the men and women in the poems. Bradstreet continues her poem in describing the woman’s love for her

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