Essay Questions

Why is love associated with youth?

The author presents the idea that only the youth can feel love. It appears as if love disappears completely in adulthood and also towards the end of one’s life. The author thus suggests that only the youth can feel love in the most complete way. The reason behind this is that in the time when the author wrote, young people could not decide who they wanted to get married to. This decision was taken for them by their parents and the decision to marry was more than often seen as a business transaction. The young people who lived wonderful love stories did this outside their marriage or in their youth before getting married. Because of this, the author presents only the young people as experiencing love in the real sense of the word.

What elements in the poem could suggest the fact that the poet sees love as a type of religion?

First of all, the poet talks about approaching ‘Love’s fire’ with devotion and a good attitude, ready to prove we are willing to suffer for love. In many cultures, veneration of different deities was centered around the fire and it was considered more than often as being a sacred element. The poet then talks about reverence and how the lovers should be ready to bring sacrifices just as a religious person may be asked to do the same in certain situations. All these facts points towards the idea that love is seen as a religion and that the lovers are perceived as being religious devotees, ready to give their lives for an ideal.

What was the attitude towards love in the time when the author wrote the poem?

The author of the poem, John Dryden, lived between 1631 and 1700, a time during which the country was heavily influenced by the church. The Church had a say in everything that happened in a person’s life, especially in the family. The church promoted a rather distorted model of love and while it did encourage its followers to get married and have children, loving one’s spouse was not a requirement. What is more, sexual intercourses were presented as being sinful even when performed between a husband and wife and thus many had a hard time finding pleasure in a married life. Many people chose to prove their love for God by remains unmarried and especially among women this was a common practice. The young people of the time were encouraged to remain chaste and virgins until their marriage and while many women obeyed this rule, the men generally had more liberty when it came to their sexuality. When Love and sexuality was not perceived as being the enemy, it was seen almost as a religion, as it was in the case in the poem written by Dryden. In these cases, the people worshiped love and did everything they could to find it, even if it meant sacrificing everything to get it.