Poetry Explication II: “On Monsieur’s Departure” The poem, “On Monsieur’s Departure,” narrates the internal and emotional unrest of Queen Elizabeth I, queen of England. The poem reveals strong emotions of grief and conveys the impression that the queen cannot speak of these feelings except on paper. Each stanza has its own separate theme, for instance, the first stanza explains how the queen is feeling, the second stanza talks about how those feelings have affected her life, and the final stanza describes the queen’s desire to move on from this pain and suffering. Every stanza has a basic rhyme scheme of “ABABCC,” with no variations, and each line has a meter of iambic pentameter. The tone of this poem is very vulnerable, it makes the reader
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This poem highlights the internal and external emotions of Queen Elizabeth I, and how the departure of her beloved has greatly affected her. The first stanza describes the constant battle between the queen’s true inner feelings to her false outer ones. It also focuses on how the feelings directly affect her, and she make the stanza personal by using "I" at the beginning of each line. The poem begins with the queen describe her emotions of grief, however, she “dare not show [her] discontent,” signifying that she cannot reveal her feelings to anyone (Elizabeth I 1). She continues on by saying that she loves, “yet [is] forced to seem to hate” and “dare not say [she] ever meant” (2, 3). These emotions revert back to the broken negotiations of marriage between her and the duke, and it expresses her love for the duke, whom which she is forced to hate and act as if she never had feelings for him. Queen Elizabeth I continues on by saying that she is often “stark mute but inwardly [does] prate” (4). The word “prate” is described as “chatter or irrelevant talk,” and that contradicts the queen being “stark” (“Prate”). “Stark” is described as “difficult and hard to touch,” which implies that externally, the queen seems to be very quiet and stern, however, on the inside, she reveals that she is constantly …show more content…
It begins with the line “some gentler passion slide into my mind,” which expresses her desire for a distraction and for something new to come into her life (13). The poem continues on by describing how "soft and made of melting snow" she is, and this metaphor symbolizes how soft and fluid she is (14). It refers to the idea of melting snow being very soft and the change of state of matter from solid to liquid. This points to the idea that maybe this love for the duke changed her, for the better, to be gentler with her feelings. The next line contrasts the idea of her softness, with the idea that she can "be crueler, love, and so be kind" (15). This expresses her desire to be more heartless, in that, she does not want to care as much for the duke as she does. In continuation, she writes "let me float or sink, be high or low," which symbolizes how she does not care how her life changes, and whether those changes are for the better or worse, she just wants to move on in her life (16). She finishes off the poem with a couplet, with the first line describing how she wants to get over it, "let me live with some more sweet content," which reiterates the idea of how she wants to move on to better things in life (17). This is contrasted by the final line where she says "or die and so forget what love ere meant," and this line
This poem highlights the internal and external emotions of Queen Elizabeth I, and how the departure of her beloved has greatly affected her. The first stanza describes the constant battle between the queen’s true inner feelings to her false outer ones. It also focuses on how the feelings directly affect her, and she make the stanza personal by using "I" at the beginning of each line. The poem begins with the queen describe her emotions of grief, however, she “dare not show [her] discontent,” signifying that she cannot reveal her feelings to anyone (Elizabeth I 1). She continues on by saying that she loves, “yet [is] forced to seem to hate” and “dare not say [she] ever meant” (2, 3). These emotions revert back to the broken negotiations of marriage between her and the duke, and it expresses her love for the duke, whom which she is forced to hate and act as if she never had feelings for him. Queen Elizabeth I continues on by saying that she is often “stark mute but inwardly [does] prate” (4). The word “prate” is described as “chatter or irrelevant talk,” and that contradicts the queen being “stark” (“Prate”). “Stark” is described as “difficult and hard to touch,” which implies that externally, the queen seems to be very quiet and stern, however, on the inside, she reveals that she is constantly …show more content…
It begins with the line “some gentler passion slide into my mind,” which expresses her desire for a distraction and for something new to come into her life (13). The poem continues on by describing how "soft and made of melting snow" she is, and this metaphor symbolizes how soft and fluid she is (14). It refers to the idea of melting snow being very soft and the change of state of matter from solid to liquid. This points to the idea that maybe this love for the duke changed her, for the better, to be gentler with her feelings. The next line contrasts the idea of her softness, with the idea that she can "be crueler, love, and so be kind" (15). This expresses her desire to be more heartless, in that, she does not want to care as much for the duke as she does. In continuation, she writes "let me float or sink, be high or low," which symbolizes how she does not care how her life changes, and whether those changes are for the better or worse, she just wants to move on in her life (16). She finishes off the poem with a couplet, with the first line describing how she wants to get over it, "let me live with some more sweet content," which reiterates the idea of how she wants to move on to better things in life (17). This is contrasted by the final line where she says "or die and so forget what love ere meant," and this line