Many poems that are written are to do with love. If one read or wrote a poem to his or her lover it would be seen to be romantic. Poems are often told as stories like in "The Flea" by John Donne which tells us of a man desperately trying to persuade the girl to sleep with him or in "Porphyria's Lover" we learn that the lover kills Porphyria to make sure the love they have is preserved forever. In "Let me not" William Shakespeare tells us the story from his point of view and what he thinks love is. All these poems are just three of the many love poems around, but each one has a different meaning and a different type of love is portrayed.

John Donne was born in 1572 in London. He studied law in 1591 and then was ordained in 1615 and six years later became Dean of St. Pauls, a position he held until his death in 1631. John Donne wrote letters, elegies, satires, epigrams, devotions, sermons and poems. His songs and sonnets are loved by audiences and "The Flea" written for fun would have to one of them. In the poem it demonstrates the sophisticated wit which Donne approaches seduction in his love poetry. The poe

This poem even though it is classed as a love poem it is a different type. It is not a romantic poem nor seductive. It is more of a lets sleep together and that will be that. There is not any real love in this poem just the narrators love for sex and he will argue to have his own way. He doesn't like the mistress; he just wants to fulfil his own pleasure.

Porhyria's Lover is a monologue, which gives the reader a dramatic insight into the mind of an abnormally possessive lover. Love poems often express the wish that time would stand still so that a particularly intense moment of love will last forever. This is the same with the lover in the poem. He feels the same way and feels he has to immortalise the moment in a different way to anyone else. In the poem we can see that right from the beginning he loves Porpyria. His moods differ throughout the poem. Whereas at the start of the poem, Browning uses negative images of the weather to reflect his mood and then when Porhyria enters she improves his mood and the weather. The opening lines reflect his mood and there is personification of the wind. Using weather to show moods is called pathetic fallocy. " The rain set in early to-night, The sullen wind was soon awake." The next quotation shows when she improves and brightens up his mood. " She shut the cold out and the storm," and " Blaze up, and all the cottage warm. " From the poem we can see that the lover is very impassive and Porhyria makes all the sexual advances. " She put my arm about her waist, And made her smooth white shoulder bare." The passion goes on but the lover suspects that someone else is love with her. He wants total possession. No one can share her. He realises then that Porhyria loved him and that she is all his. "...at least I knew Porhyria worshiped me." The repetitive use of the word "mine" in line 36 shows how possessive he is. "That moment she was mine, mine fair." Because he knows that at the moment in time she loves him he wants to preserve that love. "In one long yellow string I wound, Three times her little throat around. I strangled her." He had killed her with her own hair. There is a total lack of emotion when he kills her and he fells no guilt or remorse. There is even warmth-links to passion. "No pain felt she; I am quite sure she felt no pain." He doesn't think he has committed a criminal act and he now thinks that their love will go on forever. The last descriptions are more positive after death and it sound

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Approximate Word count = 1679
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)