Song ("Love Armed") Literary Elements

The speaker of the poem is an unnamed woman who laments an unrequited love. She addresses her beloved directly in the poem, arguing that together they created a monstrous version of Cupid, the god of erotic love.

The poem is composed of two stanzas of eight lines each, and is written in iambic tetrameter. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCDEFEFGHGH.

The central metaphor of the poem is that of love as Eros (known to the Romans as Cupid). This version of Eros is a cruel and arbitrary god who abuses the powers his co-creators gave to him. The speaker takes on the identity of Aphrodite (or her Roman counterpart, Venus), goddess of love, whereas her lover takes on the allegorical role of Ares (Mars), contributing the more aggressive aspects of love.

The poet uses assonance in the line "From thy Bright Eyes he took his fire," repeating the long "I" sound within the line (5). This repetition effectively slows down the line to dramatize the speaker's own hypnotized state at the seductive nature of her beloved.

The central irony of the poem is that the narrator has been grievously harmed by the demigod she helped to create and empower.

Lyric poem, originally presented as a song in Behn's play Abdelazer.

There is no specific setting for the poem, though the speaker describes Cupid sitting triumphantly among bleeding hearts, suggesting that there has been a metaphorical battle or war.

Fearful, solemn, resigned

The speaker can be considered the protagonist of the poem, while either the destructive Cupid or the speaker's beloved could be considered the antagonist. At the end of the poem, the speaker equates the two figures.

The central conflict of the poem is one of unrequited love: the speaker's beloved has not returned her affection and desire, leading her to imagine love as a cruel and violent enemy.

The climax of the poem can be found just before its final two lines. The speaker argues that together, she and her beloved have "armed" this corrupted version of Cupid with the power to wound, only to reveal that she herself has been wounded in the process while her beloved walks free (13).

The description of Cupid surrounded by bleeding hearts foreshadows the revelation that one of the wounded hearts belongs to the speaker.

There is a notable lack of understatement in the poem, emphasizing the severity of the speaker's pain.

The poem makes use of a number of classical and poetic allusions. The speaker alludes to Greek and Roman mythology through the figure of Cupid (or Eros), as well as to the Petrarchan tradition of lyric poetry through her use of conventional phrases like "sighs and tears" to describe desire (9).

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Love is personified as a reckless, weapon-happy and sadistic deity who wounds lovers with his "Killing Dart" (12).

One could argue that the poem as a whole is an example of hyperbole, as the speaker equates unrequited love with death, emphasizing the extent of her despair.

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