`True Love` Judith Viorst and `The Passionate Shepherd to his Love`Christopher Marlowe

Probably the most popular subject amongst poets across all ages , love forms the centre of Judith Viorst 's `True Love . What is incredible about the poem is that despite dealing with a subject so often written about in poetry , the treatment is refreshing and has great novelty of thought and expression

There are no sweeping statements or declamations about love , no measuring of the extent of love - so typical of traditional love poetry from the Elizabethans or the love sonnets of Spenser or Donne . What there is , is a satirical voice , recounting

several instances from everyday reality which , despite the comic tone , are a clear indicator of True Love in the modern world

In the modern world true love could well be about putting eyeliner or making pungent observations about the great issues of the day ' It could even be about watching football (despite hating it ) or about never saying I told you so ' Yet , it is these little mundane details that are an indicator of true love

The narrator says that if he 's late for dinner , which means he 's either having an affair or lying dead on the street , she 'd rather hope he 's dead . Death of the beloved - an unheard of thought , especially in romantic poetry - and yet a testimony to the extent of their love . She 'd rather have him dead than cheat

Viorst , through this clever interplay of the mundane with the intense manages to create a picture of love rarely seen in poetry . In the second stanza for instance , she starts by citing some fairly ridiculous and comic examples of their love (of him wearing unironed undershorts because she is philosophically opposed to ironing ) - and ends it off on the same cut-and-dried tone about him choosing the beloved over his mother if he had to save one from drowning

The nature of true love elucidated by the poem is one that can actually comprise many other feelings as well . True love could also include hate or bickering or friendship or huge sacrifice . The third stanza for instance , shows how they both understood , in separate instances , why she hated him or why he hated her . True love - as opposed to romanticized love - brings with it a kind of security which allows for these myriad feelings to surface

The expression of the poem is conversational , as if it were a part of everyday speech and this mode of expression is what gives credibility to the nature of love depicted in this poem . Everyday , routine , comprising cigarette cough ' and tooth decay . And yet , when you scratch the surface of this dry , matter-of-fact tone , what you get is love , that is indeed very lived and very real Christopher Marlowe 's `The Passionate Shepherd to his Love , is a love poem that employs the Elizabethan tradition of the pastoral and is a poem very much entrenched in the poetic tradition of its age

The pastoral tradition - used by several Elizabethans including Shakespeare - is used to depict...