By closely examining at least three poems, explain in detail the type of love which is being portrayed in each.

             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 poem is arguably a performance designed to show the reader how cleverly thought an argument could be twisted rather than a genuine attempt at courtship. The poem is made up of three stanzas each one having a different argument to put across. It is an extended metaphor with the flea and its actions compared to the narrator and the mistress. A flea goes around his daily business by landing on unsuspecting culprits and then sucks the blood from it. When had enough he goes and does his act on other mammals. Two types of blood are then mixed inside the flea. This is how the flea is related to the narrator and the mistress. Basically the first stanza is where the flea is spotted; the second is where the narrator argues that she mustn't kill the flea, and the third is where she kills the flea.