By Leonardo Albertini and Michael Perez.
Song To: Celia
By Ben
Jonson
“Song: To Celia” By Ben Jonson
• Theme: Love, unrequited love, obsession.
• An obsessive lover, who is not corresponded, admires the beauty of a woman and
places her above everything and everyone else, even the Gods.
• Speaker: An infatuated man who is deeply in love with the physical beauty of this
woman and is not corresponded.
• Subject: A woman that is not aware of this man’s infatuation, therefore not returning
his affection and admiration.
• Length: 4 Quadrants.
Stylistic Devices:
• Tone: Enamored, Infatuated, Obsessed.
• Example: “I would not change for thine.” The speaker raises this woman above
everything and considers her beauty and love to be more powerful than the gods.
Effect: The speaker creates this tone to indicate how men are often driven by beauty
rather than character and personality.
• Metaphor:
• Example -“The thirst that from the soul doth rise”. Effect: Compares his desperation
to thirst, as if he was dying because he can’t get the girl’s attention.
Quotes:
“And leave a kiss but in the cup,
And I’ll not look for wine.”
“As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be.”
“Come Live with
me, and be my
Love.”
By
Christopher
Marlowe
“Come Live with me, and be my
Love.” By Christopher Marlowe
• Theme: Love, Enjoy the moment without worrying about the future.
• A man of prestige and nobility who seeks love in the fields of a hierarchy substantially
lower than his own in which a plethora of items are offered to woo his beloved into a
marital position.
• Speaker : A man attempting to gain his significant other’s approval for a future
together through his lineage.
• Subject: A woman bearing the qualities of a poverty – stricken individual declining
the mans initial offerings.
• Length: 6 Quadrants.
Stylistic Devices:
• Tone: Enamored, Desperate.
• Example: “ Come live with me and be my love”. The speaker skips any formal
conformities with a relationship and popped the big question without worry of the
future. Effect: The speaker creates this tone to illustrate the desperation presented
toward fulfilling the needs of a man seeking a betrothed.
• Hyperbole:
• Example – “And I will make thee bed of roses And a thousand fragrant posies”.
Effect: Exaggerating the quantity of the speaker’s offering brings into question, to
what ends would the speaker travel would travel in order to convince his beloved to
accept his initial proposal?
Quotes:
“Fair lined slippers for the cold,
With buckles of the purest gold.”
“If these delights thy mind may move,
Then live with me, and be my love.”