Sonnet 30
Love is not all: it is not meat nor drink
Nor slumber nor a roof aganist the rain;
Nor yet a floating spar to men that sink
And rise and sink and rise and sink again;
Love can not fill the thickened lung with breath,
Nor clean the blood, nor set the fractured bone;
Yet many a man is making friends with death
Even as I speak, for lack of love alone.
It well may be that in a difficult hour,
Pinned down by pain and moaning for release,
Or nagged by want past resolution's power,
I might be driven to sell your love for peace,
Or trade the memory of this night for food.
It well may be. I don not think I would.
I need to be an expert on this poem and I need your help. Please give me your interpretation or analysis of it. I need to understand it, what do it mean? Thank you
2006-10-10 23:17:00 · 7 answers · asked by ruthvon11 2 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
"She knows first-hand what love can and cannot
do, and that knowledge makes her final, defiant affirmation of its
importance all the more poignant and powerful. Love is not everything, but
it does not need to be; what it is, is enough."
This is a quote from the minstrels site. In a way she is describing love by listing in a very practical and compelling way things that it obviously is not. Possibly influenced by the bible, love has often been described as a kind of all redeeming grace. As a life line, something that actually heals, something that actually provides sustenance. I think she is intentionally going agaist this tradition, pitting love against suffering, and implying that love can actually do very little to remove it.
It is so easy to be idealistic about love. To fail to see the point of living without it. But what does love really mean when it can do so little? She imagines herself suffering and tormented and admits that she might give it all up just to be at ease for a while.
" I do not think I would"
And that's what counts. Never does she actually say what love IS or what it DOES do. It might not be the all-powerful thing we like to imagine it to be, but still, she seems to be saying she believes in it, for what it's worth.
2006-10-11 01:01:33 · answer #1 · answered by Topi M 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I am not really sure with my answer. But, I think the sonnet states that LOVE IS UNEXPLAINABLE! Why? Because when you're in love, you do a lot of crazy things , and sometimes you can't even understand yourself.. Love can't be resembled to another thing because love is love itself.
2006-10-10 23:56:28 · answer #2 · answered by Lala 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i reckon its saying that love is not everything in the world and that the author is more than having a life without love but with peace in the world she would easily sell it and also what is love if the person you share with it is dead
something like that dont quote me to that i ant 100 percent sure but goodluck its a toughy
2006-10-10 23:29:44 · answer #3 · answered by minimaan5698 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Love is not like anything around us and even if you don't no it you can still try to see and understand it because we beieve that the main thing in life is love.
2006-10-10 23:25:57 · answer #4 · answered by drama_nut4ever 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Try this...
http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=18772
2006-10-10 23:31:50 · answer #5 · answered by Vogon Poet 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not really good at poetry. though, I think this poem is cool!
2006-10-11 00:35:44 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
"love is not love which alters when it alteration finds"
2006-10-10 23:28:58 · answer #7 · answered by The Lioness 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋