Explain the excerpts of poems given below with reference to their context:
“My love is now awake out of her dreams (s),and her fayre eyes like stars that dimmed were With darksome cloud, now shew theyr goodly beams More bright then Hesperus his head doth rere.”
Solution
A dreamlike scenario of a passionate relationship is depicted in the passage of the poetry that is being read here. The speaker is expressing their love as being “waking out of her nightmares,” and he or she compares her eyes to stars that were before obscured by “darksome cloud.” The term “fayre” is an old-fashioned spelling of the word “fair,” which often refers to something that is lovely or appealing. The individual speaking is claiming that now that their love is alive, her eyes are even more lovely and luminous than the star Hesperus, which is also known as the evening star.
It’s possible that the picture of the “darksome cloud” obstructing the brilliance of the stars is a metaphor for a challenging or stressful moment that the speaker and the person they love have lately triumphed through. The speaker is implying that now that this trying period in their relationship has over, the splendour and brilliance of their love are more obvious than ever before.
Hesperus is known as the evening star because it is the brightest star visible in the sky as the sun begins to set. The speaker is attempting to draw parallels between the radiance of their love’s eyes and the radiance of the evening star. It is a bit of an exaggeration, but he is trying to draw attention to how beautiful the eyes of the person he loves are.
In its entirety, the poem is the speaker’s way of conveying their profound adoration and love for their lover. The speaker’s thoughts of amazement and astonishment towards their love are conveyed via the use of imagery and parallels to natural occurrences such as stars and the evening star. These comparisons assist to illustrate the speaker’s feelings. The beauty of their beloved is celebrated in this poetry, along with the happiness that the beloved brings into the life of the speaker.
The poem is written in a classic poetic style, and it makes use of rhyming couplets, both of which contribute to the overall impression of beauty and elegance that is conveyed via the language. The poem’s use of archaic spellings, such as “fayre” and “rere,” further contributes to the feeling that it has been around forever and is steeped in history.
The metaphor of the “darksome cloud” that had earlier muted the brilliance of the stars is also a fascinating choice since it may be construed in a number of various ways depending on the context. One possible reading of this passage is that the cloud is symbolic of a challenging time in the relationship between the speaker and the object of their affection, which has been successfully navigated at this point. There is also the possibility that it alludes to the personal battle or challenge that the speaker’s love was going through in the past but that has now been overcome. The picture of the cloud being lifted to show the brightness of the stars serves to express a sense of triumph and victory over hardship. This is true regardless of the exact interpretation that is being applied to the image.
Another effective metaphor is the speaker’s love being compared to the evening star Hesperus by the speaker. The evening star is a symbol that is frequently used to refer to hope, renewal, and the promise of a brand new day. The speaker is conveying the idea that their love gives them a sense of new beginnings as well as hope when they make the comparison between the eyes of their love and the evening star.
The entirety of the poem serves as a glowing ode to the splendour and brilliance of the speaker’s love. The use of images and analogies to natural occurrences helps the speaker portray their profound respect and awe for their love for one another. Both the language and the structure of the poem contribute to the feeling that time has stood still and that the poem is part of a long-standing tradition. This gives the reader the impression that the speaker’s love is something that is unending and unchanging.