Suicidal Thoughts
In her agony over love lost, Labe is continually referencing death. Her suicidal thoughts bear no ideation, but they are strong and present reminders of the fragility of the mind. Labe specifically rejects the idea of suicide, forgoing death, but she is the one to constantly bring up the subject in her poems. For instance, in "While Yet These Tears," she writes extensively about her sorrow, while actively convincing herself that she has not yet tried everything to live. While she still can cry and feel and act, she is responsible to life. Only after she can no longer do anything at all does she welcome death. Sonnet XIV bears a similar message of resigned commitment to life and an active resistance of these suicidal thoughts.
The Agony of Love
Writing about her romantic life, Labe continually describes the agony which comes along with being in love. Her poems revolve around ideas of impure joy and sorrow, as if one cannot exist without the other. At least this is her experience of love. Poems like Sonnet VIII describe a dark portrait of suffering which is Labe's encounter of loving another. There is no rest for the lover. If not longing for true reciprocation, then the lover is once more entrenched in the throws of infatuation which are akin to the kind of agony which only the intangible can offer.
Anger at Rejection
Along with love and romance, there is often a trend toward vengeful anger in Labe's poetry, though she remains humble and conscious of when anger seeps in to her writing. She offers not justification, but insists that her feelings are true in the moment. In Sonnet XXIII, feeling abandoned in the wake of a nasty breakup, Labe turns to anger as an outlet for her own feelings of worthlessness and betrayal. She accuses her lover of all sorts of crimes of intention and of the worst kind of untrustworthiness, him having left her.
