Outline Introduction
Hook
In the poetic sequence “Modern Love,” George Meredith uses figurative language and metaphor to portray a view of modern love as being comparable to living death. This bleak, pessimistic view is communicated primarily through his use of personification and metaphor as means to characterize modern lovers.
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Internal Realities The wife’s internal reality, revealed to us through the poet’s use of indirect characterization, becomes apparent as “she wept with waking eyes” (l. 1).
She is openly miserable as she sobs in their common bed
“the strange low sobs that shook their common bed” (l. 3).
Illustrates the lack of passion
Husband views it as their “marriage tomb” (line 15)
Has bitter feelings towards
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14) devoid of life and passion, are one of the primary means that the speaker utilizes to convey his views on modern love. Their stony, passionless attitudes toward each other are painful to read, but they effectively communicate the nature of their love.
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Figurative Language and Imagery
Personification
wife’s “waking eyes” (l. 1) the husband’s “hand’s light quiver” (l. 2) the woman’s sobs “that shook their common bed” (l. 3)
“giant heart” (line 9) which is egged on to “Drink the pale drug of silence” (line 10).
Each of these examples serve to dehumanize the characters; it is as if their individual eyes and hearts and hands must act independently of them because they are so paralyzed, rendered so “stone-still” (l. 7) by their passionless love. Body Paragraph
Metaphor
The speaker also uses several effective metaphors and similes to portray modern love in all its misery. “little gaping snakes” (l. 5),
Comparison of this to the wife’s sobs communicates an attitude of revulsion and distaste in which she is held
“lay / stone-still … / with muffled pulses” (lns. 6-8)
Clear lack of affection
Metaphor likens her to a