‘Love’s Farewell’ Michael Drayton (1563–1631)
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part,—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
—Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!
Speakers 1st position to lover
Speakers final position
Personification
Structure
, Biographical information:
• British Elizabethan poet – writing at the same time as Shakespeare but much less
famous
• This poem is part of a cycle of 64 sonnets called ‘Idea’s Mirror’ which detail love
problems
• Drayton was wooing ladies, but it didn’t work out – died a bachelor
Meaning/Message:
• From break up to make up
• The speaker seems to be harshly breaking up with a lover. However, at the end it is
twisted as he is actually pleading to reunite.
Imagery/ Figures of speech/ Diction:
• Extended personification of love
• ALLITERATION OF HARD AND POUNDING L and P SOUND: shows melodramatic
account of love’s death
Structure:
• Ironic use of Elizabethan/ English Sonnet
→ 3 Quatrains of 4 lines each. Each quatrain offers a different perspective of
argument.
Quatrains
1. Quatrain 1: Informs lover of the breakup and speaker expresses their happiness no
longer to be together.
2. Quatrain 2: Speaker instructs lover to never get emotional if they meet again.
3. Quatrain 3: Speaker personifies love and describes it dying.
Rhyming Couplet
• Function to sum up the argument is twisted as instead speaker pleads for his lover to
stay with him.
Sonnet
• Very regular structure
• Shows speaker’s non-emotive ordered argument to end relationship. E.g. set rhyme
scheme (abab) and set line and stanza length).
• Twisted as actually speaker is not in control and is very emotional.
Tone/mood:
Shift:
• Quatrains – melodramatic/ cruel/ harsh/ biting
• Rhyming couplet – sad/ desperate/ pleading / tender
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part,—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
—Now if thou would'st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!
Speakers 1st position to lover
Speakers final position
Personification
Structure
, Biographical information:
• British Elizabethan poet – writing at the same time as Shakespeare but much less
famous
• This poem is part of a cycle of 64 sonnets called ‘Idea’s Mirror’ which detail love
problems
• Drayton was wooing ladies, but it didn’t work out – died a bachelor
Meaning/Message:
• From break up to make up
• The speaker seems to be harshly breaking up with a lover. However, at the end it is
twisted as he is actually pleading to reunite.
Imagery/ Figures of speech/ Diction:
• Extended personification of love
• ALLITERATION OF HARD AND POUNDING L and P SOUND: shows melodramatic
account of love’s death
Structure:
• Ironic use of Elizabethan/ English Sonnet
→ 3 Quatrains of 4 lines each. Each quatrain offers a different perspective of
argument.
Quatrains
1. Quatrain 1: Informs lover of the breakup and speaker expresses their happiness no
longer to be together.
2. Quatrain 2: Speaker instructs lover to never get emotional if they meet again.
3. Quatrain 3: Speaker personifies love and describes it dying.
Rhyming Couplet
• Function to sum up the argument is twisted as instead speaker pleads for his lover to
stay with him.
Sonnet
• Very regular structure
• Shows speaker’s non-emotive ordered argument to end relationship. E.g. set rhyme
scheme (abab) and set line and stanza length).
• Twisted as actually speaker is not in control and is very emotional.
Tone/mood:
Shift:
• Quatrains – melodramatic/ cruel/ harsh/ biting
• Rhyming couplet – sad/ desperate/ pleading / tender
