What kind of love is it?
             There is an old saying goes: "Love is blind." And, personally speaking, I aggrieve with this kind of statement.  But, I think love can still be classified into many different sorts.  Such as passionate love, innocent love, selfish love, and a kind of love in purpose.  And, after I reading the pomes of "The Farmer's Bride", and "Porphyria's Lover".  I find out more negative aspect in love between a man and a woman.

             Both in these two pomes, I can feel the bondage which men eager to put in women, and I also can find out how humble we women is in men's idea.  Well, I want to take a look at "The Farmer's Bride" firstly.  In the first stanza of this pome, the farmer says that the maid whom he chooses as a bride is good at harvest time.  This sentence makes me feel that the farmer views his bride as a kind of tool. He just wants to use her.  And, in the latter part of this stanza, the farmer says that his bride become afraid of love, he, and all things human. And, at last, she just runs away.  There is no real love in her marriage, what she has is only the slave like life.  In the second stanza, the farmer rushes out to chase, catching his wife, and locks her up.  These sentences appear the men's desire in controlling women. And, the shiver and the scar of the bride appear women's lacking in strength.  And, it might refer to women's low status in that period of time.  The male-center society is a heavy burden for women.

             In the third stanza, the farmer says that his wife is much familiar with little animals, but look him as a danger stranger.  She never speak to him, he can't get touch with her. The farmer feels angry, or I can say he feels helpless.  Because, though he has locked her up, he can't get her trust, her heart, and her love.  He complains about her wild self, but why dose not he think about himself?  Dose he give what his wife really need?  He only thinks about himself, his loneliness.  How selfish he is.

             And, in the fourth stanza, the poet used the shorter and shorter days, blue smoke, low gray sky, slowly falling leaf, and the not merry Christmas-time as the negative description of his unhappy marriage, and the distant relation between he and his wife.  There is a kind of invisible pressure both in the farmer and his wife's hearts.

             The last stanza, the farmer calls his wife as a maid.  This appears that men think women are inferior to them.  Men want women, need women, but sometimes they not really love them by heart.  Men always think they are powerful, and they can get everything that they want.  But, they forget that women have their own free mind.
 
             Sometimes, I really wander whether there is love between men and women.  Or, there is only competition exists in them.

             Than I want to write something about " Porphyria's Lover".  From line one to line nine, I feel that the male role thinks Porphyria as his hope, his life, and his energy source.  I think this might be the reason why the poet gave Porphyria a work to light the fire.  And, from line ten to line twenty-two, I can feel that Porphyria had a closed relationship with "he".  Through the description of Porphyria's behavior, it is not difficult to find out the hide root in her terrible death.  "He" must feel that Porphyria looked him as her lover, because she acted so closely with him.  But, actually, she might only view him as a closed friend, not a lover.  Or, she might merely saw him as a kind of entertainment.  Did she really love him?  This is a too tough question to answer.  But, there is one thing that I think I can quiet make sure---"He" doesn't have the feeling of security in the relationship with Porphyria.  Or, he doesn't have to kill her in order to keep her with him.  Might be he want to own her, or might be he want to show his power.  But, I think this kind of love is too passionate.  Well, the theme in this pome makes me recall the short story "A Rose for Emily".  "He" and Emily both afraid of the betray of their love, and I think the difference in their viewpoints of love may be another reason of their ruined love.  After he killed Porphyria, he seemed doesn't feel guilt of his behavior.  Because he said---God has not said a word!

             What kind of love is it?  What is real love?  I think this may be the most difficult question to answer.
                                                                                  Maxine

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