The Endless Conflictions of Love “For That He Looked Not Upon Her” appears to very conflicting throughout. The poem appears to reflect the effect a girl had on the speaker’s mind and feeling of despair. Throughout the poem there are a couple different attitudes or tones displayed such as a depressed, regretful tone and a hopeful, admirable tone. By using metaphors, structure, and diction, the author is able to portray different, conflicting tones within the poem. Within the first five lines of the poem the author uses diction and portrays a very depressed and regretful tone. A specific example would be, “To see me hold my louring head so low;”(Gascoigne 2). The author uses the word “louring” to express the gloomy, low mind of the speaker.
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Lines five through ten are packed full of metaphors in order to provide a comparison to the speaker. “The mouse which once hath broken out of trap is seldom ‘ticed with the trustless bait.”(Gascoigne 5-6) is comparing the speaker to the mouse. The mouse had once caught itself in a trap, but has almost completely learned from its’ mistake. The author uses the word, “seldom” to stress that the mouse falls into the trap less often. Just as the mouse will go back to what hurt it, the speaker may as well. Although the speaker may go back to that pain, the speaker is slowly learning not to go back to the origin of his pain, similar to the mouse. This can portray a complex attitude between hopelessness and hopefulness for the speaker as the speaker did acknowledge his mistake of running back to what hurt him and is slowly improving, but the use of the word, “seldom”, suggests that there is still a possibility that the speaker will fall back into that trap. In the author’s case, the trap is falling back into love with a specific girl. The author can’t help but fall back into his old habits, which would lead him to get hurt again, hence why he calls it a trap. Comparatively, the same idea is shown the metaphor, “The scorched fly which once hath ‘scaped the flame will hardly come to play again with fire.”(Gascoigne 9-10). The author is comparing a fly learning from its’ mistakes to the speaker. The same type of comparison about the fly corresponds with the one of the mouse. In this metaphor, the flame is the same as the trap in the mouse metaphor, both are dangerous and harmful. Structurally, the placement of these two metaphors in a row pushes the complex attitude through the
Lines five through ten are packed full of metaphors in order to provide a comparison to the speaker. “The mouse which once hath broken out of trap is seldom ‘ticed with the trustless bait.”(Gascoigne 5-6) is comparing the speaker to the mouse. The mouse had once caught itself in a trap, but has almost completely learned from its’ mistake. The author uses the word, “seldom” to stress that the mouse falls into the trap less often. Just as the mouse will go back to what hurt it, the speaker may as well. Although the speaker may go back to that pain, the speaker is slowly learning not to go back to the origin of his pain, similar to the mouse. This can portray a complex attitude between hopelessness and hopefulness for the speaker as the speaker did acknowledge his mistake of running back to what hurt him and is slowly improving, but the use of the word, “seldom”, suggests that there is still a possibility that the speaker will fall back into that trap. In the author’s case, the trap is falling back into love with a specific girl. The author can’t help but fall back into his old habits, which would lead him to get hurt again, hence why he calls it a trap. Comparatively, the same idea is shown the metaphor, “The scorched fly which once hath ‘scaped the flame will hardly come to play again with fire.”(Gascoigne 9-10). The author is comparing a fly learning from its’ mistakes to the speaker. The same type of comparison about the fly corresponds with the one of the mouse. In this metaphor, the flame is the same as the trap in the mouse metaphor, both are dangerous and harmful. Structurally, the placement of these two metaphors in a row pushes the complex attitude through the