The Depiction of Love in "Envoi" by Victoria Sackville-West Amelie Maurice-Jones 12th Grade

Sackville West’s "Envoi" reads as a celebration of the beauty and power of romantic love which is able to brighten the surroundings of those who experience it. Nonetheless, Sackville-West eventually reaches the same realisations of predecessors Shakespeare and Donne in concluding that love, no matter how deep, is fated to fade with the passing of time.

Envoi might be read as a testament to all the joys of romantic love which are able to enrich the everyday experiences of those who are lucky enough to experience it. Such is demonstrated though the rich coloured imagery throughout the poem: ‘the ‘silver’ and ‘golden’ skies which overarch the couple mark out love as a thing to be treasured like precious metals, and the ‘red’ moon symbolises the progression of the romance which begins innocent and fresh and blossoms into something deep and passionate. It could be argued that the colour ‘red’ alternatively warns of the danger that the couple will come under as their love is destroyed, and yet such awareness of the brevity of love allows it to become even more appreciated as it must be savoured in the short period in which it lasts. Highlighting this is the alliteration of the letter ‘r’ in ‘rose round and red’, as one must literally...