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Question
Love is described as light. What makes the poet talk about shadows?
Solution
According to the Poet, the shadows represent the ups and downs in a relationship based on love. The shadows represent parallel human bonding which is tested over a gradual period of time. The length of the shadow is meant to depict maturity in love. As described in the poem, the shortest length of the shadow is a Noon (12 PM) depicting utmost understanding as compared to a long shadow during the early part of the day.
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RELATED QUESTIONS
How do the shadows before noon differ from the shadows afternoon? What do the two kinds of shadow represent?
Comment on the use of the image of the shadows for the idea that the poet wants to convey.
The poet seems to be addressing his beloved in the poem. What is the message he wishes to convey to her?
Instead of ‘A Lecture Upon Love’ the poet calls the poem ‘A Lecture Upon the Shadow’. What is the effect that this has on our reading of the poem?
Examples from other poems from this period:
- How neatly doe we give one onely name
- To parents issue and the sunnes bright starre!
| As the first were made to blind Others, these which come behind Will work upon ourselves, and blind our eyes. If our loves faint, and westwardly decline, To me thou, falsely, thine, And I to thee mine actions shall disguise. The morning shadowes wear away, But these grow longer all the day; But oh, love's day is short, if love decay. Love is a growing, or full constant light, And his first minute, after noone, is night. |
- What does the poet mean by ‘the first’?
- How are the first different from others that follow?
- What is meant by love declining westward?
- What does morning shadows represent?
- What is the night symbolic of?
- Which word is an apt synonym for ‘thine’
- Ours
- yours
- hers
- theirs
Read the extract given below and answer the questions which follow:
|
Stand still, and I will read to thee These three hours that we have spent, So whilst our infant loves did grow, |
- What is the central message of the poem?
- What is the significance of the shadows in the poem?
- What is the meaning of the phrase "Love's philosophy" in the poem?
- In what ways does the poem reflect Milton's view of love and relationships?
- How does the poem use imagery and figurative language to convey its message?
- Pick out the word from the extract which is an apt synonym of ‘conscientious'.
