What do
you consider to be the major theme in Aphra Behn's ‘Love Armed’?
Aphra
Behn’s poem ‘Love Armed’ is about someone and the "you" individual.
Someone has had their heart broken by the "you." The "you” is
incapable of returning love. Thus, two kinds of love are in competition--love
given freely and love of self. "You” obviously uses love of self as a
weapon. The deity called LOVE is strengthened by both kinds of love as the
deity is a combination of the traits of both kinds of love.
This
is an example of unrequited love. One gives love unconditionally; one uses that
love as an instrument of cruelty. The first is obviously aware that their love
is not returned; the second is vain and cruel and incapable of love. The deity
of love created reflects the misery and hurt of the first and the cruelty of
"you."
Love, which can bring happiness and joy, can also cause vastly more grief and pain if it is not acknowledged or returned. This is obvious in the role of a cruel deity presiding gloating over what has happened in this one-side love relationship.
The poem's narrative design is used to express the lover's realization that she or he is harmed and captive forever by their sense of love for "you", while "you" is forever free. The reader is drawn into the deep well of grief and despair that the first lover feels as they read the poem.
The poem
"Love Armed", by Aphra Behn, contains multiple figures of speech (or
literary devices).Love, which can bring happiness and joy, can also cause vastly more grief and pain if it is not acknowledged or returned. This is obvious in the role of a cruel deity presiding gloating over what has happened in this one-side love relationship.
The poem's narrative design is used to express the lover's realization that she or he is harmed and captive forever by their sense of love for "you", while "you" is forever free. The reader is drawn into the deep well of grief and despair that the first lover feels as they read the poem.
The first line contains personification (the giving of human characteristics to non-human/ non-living things).
Love in Fantastic Triumph sat
Love is personified. Love cannot sit; humans sit.
