Friday, June 21, 2013

Paraphrase Michael Drayton's sonnet "Love's Farewell."

Michael Drayton's sonnet "Love's Farewell," deals with the theme of reconcilement between two lovers who are at the brink of breaking up and parting forever, but at the last moment they decide to make up and continue as lovers.

the first eight lines, (the octave) emphasise the idea that nothing more can be done to revive the love between them both and that all that they can now do is to "shake hands forever, cancel all our vows."

In the next four lines, Drayton compares their love to a person on his deathbed who is about to breathe his last: "the last gasp of Love's latest breath."

In the concluding couplet, (the gemmel) Drayton reverses the entire situation by making an earnest and sincere plea to his lover that it is still possible to revive the almost dead love between them both and thus continue to be lovers forever: "now if thou wouldst, when all have given him over/From death to life thou mightst him yet recover!"

The poem deals with two lovers who quarrel because of their capricious nature and decide to be reconciled no sooner than they had decided to part ways forever.

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