Preface
  
When we talk about courtly or religious love in Metaphysical poetry,
we would have to talk about Platonic love.
The modern definition of Platonic love is the love or friendship
between two people that is only of the mind and spirit, not sexually.
In contrast, Platonic love in the 17th century view the love of the physical to the spiritual love of God.
This is an exception in the analyses of “Valediction: Forbidden Mourning”by Claire,
where the poet sees their love as one that is of the spiritual and the soul,
different from the physical attraction of mundane lovers.
Yet, this is not so in the analyses of
“To His Coy Mistress” by Sarita and “The Flea” by Jenny.
Both poem demonstrates the view of Platonic love at that time,
as was mentioned earlier.
In “To His Coy Mistress”,
Sarita specifies the Universal elements of such love in terms of time and space.
In “The Flea”, Jenny concentrates on the use of religious metaphors,
categorizing it under religious love poetry.
And Vicky’s “Courting Sonnet from Romeo and Juliet”
also embodies the Religious elements,
and as a whole,
their death at the end is like the sacrifice of Christ, eliminating evil by love.
By Jenny Chang
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Courtly love can be traced back to the age when Le Morte Darthur was firstly introduced into English literature world.
Generally, courtly love is transformed from cavalier love;
however, the fine line is not definite.
Great amount of legends, lyrics, poems about courtly love have been being recited throughout centuries and even today it is still a popular topic for pop fictions and romance novels.
Amoung literature works about courtly love, Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory and Astrophel and Stella by Philip Sidney are two of the most tremulous works.
 
The love story in Le Morte Darthur is the complex relation between king Arthur, queen Guinevere and Lancelot.
King Arthur and the queen were the amiable, merry couple;
but since the first knight Lancelot appears,
the situation is overwhelmingly changed.
Lancelot is faithful and royal to the king,
he serves the king with his whole life,ever since he meets the queen,
he helplessly falls in love with Guinevere and so does she,
then they have adultery.
They do not mean to betray the king or even commit the treason and meanwhile when the king perceives their love affair then he tend to ignore it, but the scandal still breaks out.
Finally, the whole kingdom ruined, the king dies in the treason held by his son, the queen prisoned herself and then died in regret and Lancelot also died with moan.
 
Another great love story is Astrophel and Stella.
Philip Sidney writes a sequence of poem according to his own romance.
Stella means star and Astrophel means starlover.
Stella is a merried woman and Astrophel secretly in love with her; being an honorable knight, he cannot commit adultery with Stella.
He writes down every detail of what happen between him and Stella and his admiration. There is a tremendous one about how Astrophel lose a fight for his mind is on Stella but not the fighting.
After losing the fight he feels so shameful of being defeated in front of Stella and he is also annoyed that Stella could have such power on him.
In the work Astophel And Stella, readers can find many traditions of courtly love, praising the lady, in love with someone improper and something about cavalier?
    By Tricia
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