Human beings often are caught in the dilemma between considering all the dynamics of love to understand what it is. We cannot live without love. However, love can be irrational and emotional, yet can also be rational and analytical. Emily Dickinson wrote the poem, “‘Why do I love’ You, Sir?” to convey the intuitive nature of being in love. She uses nature and has a distinct style to express her knowledge of love. A. E. Housman’s poem, “When I was one-and-twenty,” delivers one knows love through experience and heartbreak. While Dickinson and Housman use conversation to express romantic love, their different genders affect how they convey the experience of love.
The expression of romantic love through conversation and questions marks the maturity of both Dickinson and Housman. The speaker of Dickinson’s poem asks, why she loves him (line 1). Although, the location of monologue’s recipient is unknown, the reader knows the receiver is male. The answer to her question has no explanation but “Because –.” The call and response approach of “The Wind does not require the Grass / To answer – Wherefore when He pass” is analogues to the speaker’s expression. Similarly, Housman’s speaker has a conversation about love. The dialogue is between a young man and a wise man. In the first stanza, the young man is “one- and twenty,” and advised is guard his heart. Then, in the second stanza the wise man says, “The heart out of the bosom / was never given in vain.” The young man is now