Elizabeth Barret Browning’s poem has been described as ‘over-passionate and unsuited for a woman’, whereas Millay’s poem is ‘complex and significant’. Compare and contrast the presentation of love in the poems in the light of this comment

Sample plan of answer to essay question. Essay example can be given. Introduction: both sonnets – Millay’s is Petrarchan. Both show love, and how this love develops over time. Elizabeth’s is of a love that will never end, and is all consuming. Millay’s is of past loves that have ended, and that no love lasts. Maybe a more realistic view on love? Point 1: Millay’s poem as complex – the passage of time echoes the feeling of losing love. Use of ghosts, and other imagery like ‘cry’ ‘midnight’ ‘tap and sigh’, the haunting hour of midnight suggests that the love she felt is dead, although the memory lives on to haunt her. The feelings remain. In contrast, Elizabeth’s poem is stuck in the present – this is how she loves him NOW, and feels as though she will love him like this forever – love as all encompassing. Point 2: Female empowerment – Millay loving lots of different men. Elizabeth showing a strong female voice that could appear over passionate. Point 3. Use of Godlike /divine imagery in Elizabeth’s poem – love as bigger than herself. Same with Millay, although she uses nature – because she has no love she is like a ‘tree in winter’. Winter at the end. Memory of summer. Cyclical like the seasons, but summer will not come again because winter is the end. Or does it just appear that way? Subtle hope that summer will come again, because the seasons always return. Point 4: Love as eternal vs love as ephemeral – link this back to nature and god. God is eternal. Nature is ephemeral and changing. Point 5: Traditional love – Millay gives a different take on traditional love – love doesn’t last. Does it in sonnet form, a subtly offering to love, as this was traditionally a love poem.