My True-Love

My True-Love
Hath My Heart

My true-love hath my heart, and I have his,
By just exchange one for the other given.
I hold his dear, and mine he cannot miss:
There never was a bargain better driven.
His heart in me keeps me and him in one;
My heart in him his thoughts and senses guides:
He loves my heart, for once it was his own;
I cherish his because in me it bides.
His heart his wound received from my sight;
My heart was wounded with his wounded heart;
For as from me on him his hurt did light,
So still, methought, in me his hurt did smart:
Both equal hurt, in this change sought our bliss,
My true love hath my heart and I have his.

The Dream

From: A Voyage to the Isle of Love

All trembling in my arms Aminta lay,

Defending of the bliss I strove to take;

Raising my rapture by her kind delay,

Her force so charming was and weak.

The soft resistance did betray the grant,

While I pressed on the heaven of my desires;

Her rising breasts with nimbler motions pant;

Her dying eyes assume new fires.

Now to the height of languishment she grows,

And still her looks new charms put on; -

Now the last mystery of Love she knows,

We sigh, and kiss: I waked, and all was done.

`Twas but a dream, yet by my heart I knew,

Which still was panting, part of it was true:

Oh how I strove the rest to have believed;

Ashamed and angry to be undeceived!

KS4 Pre 1914 Poetry.

What do the above poems tell us about the differing attitudes held by men and women towards relationships.

Provide class with the poems and analyse each.

The analysis should cover:

Form

Structure

Rhyme

Rhythm

Metaphor

Simile

Meaning.

This needs to be done in such a way as to not indicate which poem is written by a man and which a woman.

The students will assume that the first poem was written by the woman and the second by the man.

This assumption should not be corrected.

Once the poems have been properly analysed, turn to the question.

Divide the board into two parts – Male Attitude/Female Attitude.

Under these headings write up what the students consider to be the differing attitudes. They will break down into the stereotype – Male – sex rather than love; female – love rather than sex.

Once this has been documented on the board ask students if these stereotypes hold true today.

At a salient point in the discussion tell them that they have all been operating on assumption and stereotype.

Poem one was written by the man – Sir Phillip Sidney.

Poem two was written by the woman – Aphra Behn.

Discuss and ask them to put in writing the process that led them to the wrong conclusions and how true they now consider the poems to be.

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