0:08 love armed by the English playwright
0:11 poet Pros writer and translator Afra Ben
0:14 first appeared as a song in Act five of
0:18 her play abdelazar or the Moors revenge in
0:20 in
0:23 1677 abdelazer is a tragedy and this
0:26 song reflects the play's themes of love
0:31 power betrayal and emotional torment
0:34 Ben herself was somewhat of a
0:38 Trailblazer not only as one of the first
0:40 English women to earn her living as a
0:43 writer did she have to navigate a male
0:46 dominated literary world but also as a
0:49 royalist she risked her life working as
0:53 a political spy for King Charles
0:56 II these experiences her need for
0:59 Independence her interactions with men
1:01 in power and the precariousness of her
1:04 position were a likely influence on her
1:08 poetry as her Works often challenged
1:11 societal Norms regarding gender politics and
1:13 and
1:17 power the speaker is florella a mere
1:20 lady in waiting to Queen Isabella who is
1:23 in love with Phillip son of the late
1:24 king of
1:28 Spain Philip's Royal status places him
1:30 far above her social
1:33 and this Gap in rank is probably the
1:36 main reason that her love for him is not
1:40 returned she personifies love as a god
1:42 blaming him for the pain she is
1:44 suffering because her feelings are
1:47 unrequited and she characterizes falling
1:52 in love as a battle a zero sum game in
1:54 which there can be only one
1:57 winner she accuses love of taking
2:00 sadistic pleasure from her misery as he
2:02 actively seeks to harm
2:06 her she claims that he has armed himself
2:08 not only with the passion in her loved
2:11 one's eyes but also with his pride and
2:15 cruelty her desire her size and tears
2:19 and her languishment and
2:21 fears while she admits that Love's
2:24 tyranny is a product of both of them she
2:27 concludes by lamenting how she defeated
2:31 and unfulfilled is the only one to
2:34 suffer the poem particularly through its
2:37 personification of love as a male seeks
2:39 to comment on the broader gender and
2:42 social inequalities in 17th century
2:45 England where hierarchies were strictly
2:48 observed and women were often denied
2:51 equal agency in both love and professional
2:53 professional
2:56 life the poem comprises two stanzas of
3:00 eight lines each each stanza itself
3:01 comprises two
3:04 quatrains I.E there is a rhyme scheme of
3:10 a b a b c d c
3:14 d all Rhymes are single or masculine
3:16 where each rhyme falls on the final
3:19 stressed syllable of the poetic
3:29 tetrameter which is entirely regular
3:31 apart from the first foot of the first
3:35 line where there is a metrical
3:39 inversion in other words a Troi dumy has
3:43 been substituted for the regulation I am
3:47 Dum love in fantastic Triumph
3:50 sat emphasizing the all encompassing
3:53 power that love
3:56 possesses all lines bar one line seven
4:00 of the first stanza are end stopped
4:03 this lack of enjambment and czora give
4:07 the poem a measured deliberate Pace
4:10 reinforcing the sense of finality and
4:13 control in love's dominance over the
4:16 speaker the predominantly end stopped
4:19 lines create a rhythmic regularity that
4:21 mirrors the inevitability of the
4:24 speaker's emotional suffering as if each
4:27 poetic line marks the closing of an
4:31 argument or a painful truth
4:33 the absence of flowing inment
4:35 contributes to the poem's tone of
4:38 restrained despair where each line
4:41 stands as a self-contained reflection of
4:45 Love's power and the speaker's
4:48 defeat not only this but Ben also
4:51 manipulates syntax to add emphasis to
4:53 particular words and phrases and to
4:56 enhance the poem's already dramatic and elevated
4:58 elevated
5:01 tone she makes frequent use of both
5:04 anastrophe where there is a deliberate
5:06 inversion of the word order for poetic
5:11 effect EG love in fantastic Triumph sat
5:15 rather than love sat in fantastic
5:18 Triumph and fronted adverbials where an
5:20 adverbial is placed at the beginning of
5:25 a sentence EG from me he took his size
5:28 and tears rather than he took his size
5:30 and tears from from
5:34 me note also that Ben seems to
5:36 capitalize words in a somewhat ad hoc
5:39 manner such as fantastic Triumph and bleeding
5:41 bleeding
5:43 hearts the capitalization of words
5:45 during this period wasn't strictly
5:48 governed by standardized rules as it is
5:51 today instead writers frequently
5:54 capitalized words when they felt like it
5:56 for emphasis or to give them
5:59 significance particularly in poetry
6:01 where capital ization could highlight
6:09 personifications Ben uses the verb took
6:11 which is explicitly repeated three times
6:14 and implicitly repeated a further three
6:17 times to characterize love as a
6:20 parasitic creature which feeds and grows
6:22 off the emotions of others while giving
6:25 nothing back but pain and
6:28 sorrow this is further enhanced by the
6:31 anaphoric from in the first three lines
6:33 of the second stanza which highlights
6:36 the one-sided destructive and
6:44 love the title Love armed immediately
6:48 personifies Love In classical mythology
6:51 Cupid the god of Desire erotic love
6:53 attraction and affection is often
6:56 portrayed as a youth armed with a bow and
6:57 and
7:00 arrow however afren portrayal of the
7:02 figure of love diverges from the
7:06 classical playful image of cupid instead
7:08 of a Charming figure inspiring Mutual
7:11 affection Love is depicted as a more
7:14 dangerous militaristic
7:17 Force the adjective armed suggests that
7:20 love is equipped with weapons ready for
7:24 battle and capable of inflicting
7:27 harm this militarized version of Love
7:29 aligns with the poem's themes of emot
7:32 emotional conquest and suffering where
7:34 Love Takes on the role of an aggressor
7:37 or Tyrant rather than a benevolent God of
7:43 romance this darker interpretation
7:45 transforms love into a symbol of power
7:48 and oppression particularly in the way
7:50 it exploits and drains the emotions of
7:53 both the speaker and the
7:56 Beloved the idea of love being armed
7:58 implies that it is ready to inflict
8:01 damage underscore ing the one-sided
8:04 destructive nature of love in the poem
8:06 where the speaker suffers emotional
8:09 wounds without any reciprocation or
8:12 relief rather than a gentle force that
8:15 Fosters connection love is portrayed as
8:18 a conqueror leaving behind anguish
8:23 vulnerability and pain in its
8:27 wake the poem begins love in fantastic
8:30 Triumph sat whil bleeding hearts around him
8:32 him
8:35 flowed the concept of Love is
8:37 immediately personified as a male
8:40 enthroned in a state of grandeur while
8:43 mortally wounded Hearts lie bleeding
8:45 profusely around him at his
8:49 feet Ben's capitalization of fantastic
8:52 Triumph and the use of anastrophe where
8:54 the verb sat is placed on the end of the
8:57 line puts the focus firmly on the image
9:00 of Love's selfs satisf action and self-
9:04 congratulation at his destructive
9:07 power the graphic image of literal
9:10 bleeding hearts with the gore flowing
9:14 out of them effectively captures the way
9:16 that the speaker feels the violent
9:19 visceral pain of a broken heart because
9:21 her love is not
9:24 returned the anastrophe with its
9:26 placement have sat and flowed on the end
9:29 of their respective poetic lines all
9:32 also contrasts Love's serenity with the
9:34 Carnage that surrounds him and
9:38 highlights his position of unassailable
9:42 power the poem continues for whom fresh
9:46 pains he did create and strange tanic
9:47 power he
9:50 showed the adjective fresh here to
9:53 describe the Pains of unrequited love
9:56 could carry the meaning of new as well
9:58 as strong and
10:00 sharp this suggests that not only are
10:03 these pains continuously renewed
10:07 indicating a sense of ongoing torment
10:11 but also that they are intense and acute
10:13 emphasizing the sharpness of the
10:16 speaker's emotional
10:19 suffering the idea that love perpetually
10:20 creates new wounds that are immediate
10:22 and overwhelming while the old ones
10:25 haven't yet had time to heal aligns with
10:27 the theme of Relentless emotional
10:29 suffering in the poem
10:32 the use of the adjective strange and
10:35 tyrannic to describe Love's power evoke
10:38 the notion of love as an oppressive
10:40 alien and cruel force that dominates the
10:43 speaker's emotional
10:46 life these words give love a character
10:49 that is far from the idealized Romantic
10:52 version often celebrated in
10:56 poetry by calling love strange then
10:58 highlights the emotional alienation the
11:01 speaker experienced es suggesting that
11:04 the love she feels is isolating driving
11:07 a wedge between her and any potential
11:09 for emotional
11:12 fulfillment it may also hint at the
11:14 disempowerment that comes from loving
11:16 someone who does not return her
11:20 affections making love itself feel
11:23 alien the use of tyrannic presents love
11:26 as a dominating cruel and oppressive
11:29 Force this work evokes the image of a TI
11:33 someone who exercises power arbitrarily and
11:34 and
11:37 mercilessly love personified here is
11:40 depicted as exploiting its victims
11:42 subjecting them to its will without care or
11:47 compassion the imagery in the second
11:50 half of the first stanza concerns the
11:52 eyes during the Renaissance it was
11:55 widely believed that the eyes were
11:57 powerful conduits of emotions and desire
11:59 and that love could be caught through the
12:01 the
12:04 Gaze from thy Bright Eyes he took his
12:07 fire which round about in sport he
12:10 hled here the speaker is addressing
12:12 albeit silently the object of her love
12:15 the King's son Phillip in a technique
12:16 known as an
12:19 apostrophe she describes how love has
12:22 taken the Fire or the Sparks of passion
12:24 from his eyes and transformed it into a
12:27 weapon to be hurled or thrown carelessly
12:31 about with considerable force in sport
12:32 or for
12:34 entertainment this fire has clearly
12:37 struck her down causing an ignition of her
12:39 her
12:42 desire the possessive pronoun thy is an
12:45 archaic form of the word your with
12:49 related words thou thee and thine and it
12:52 was used in an informal familiar manner
12:56 much as the t two or two forms are still
13:00 used today in French Italian and Spanish
13:03 its usage however says more about her
13:05 tender feelings for him than it does
13:06 about their
13:09 relationship as a mere lady in waiting
13:11 it would have been outrageous for her to
13:14 thow a prince in conversation if indeed
13:17 she ever had reason to speak to him at
13:21 all she continues but TW from mine he
13:25 took desire enough to undo the Amorous
13:27 World in return love has taken the
13:29 desire that has been igned ignited in
13:31 her eyes and she recognizes the
13:34 destructive potential of a desire that
13:36 is so great it would be sufficient to
13:39 undo or annihilate the very world of love
13:41 love
13:43 itself note that these lines
13:45 appropriately feature the only incidents
13:48 of enjambment in the entire poem and so
13:50 is the only place where the speaker
13:53 allows her meaning to spill over from
13:55 one poetic line to the next through the
13:59 sheer force of her emotion
14:03 the second stanza begins from me he took
14:06 his size and tears from thee his pride
14:10 and cruelty from me his languishment and
14:14 fears and every killing Dart from
14:17 thee Ben continues her characterization
14:21 of love as a parasitic Force which grows
14:23 in power and strength as it feeds off
14:26 the speakers and the man's
14:29 emotions the verb took in the first line
14:32 governs the subsequent phrases in lines
14:35 2 3 and four even though it is not
14:38 explicitly repeated each
14:41 time this technique creates an effect of
14:43 implicit repetition reinforcing the
14:46 Relentless one-sided nature of love in the
14:48 the
14:51 poem by omitting the repeated use of Tuk
14:54 but making it understood across the
14:57 stanza Ben emphasizes how love
15:00 continually extracts from both the
15:04 speaker size tears languishment and
15:08 fears and the Beloved Pride cruelty and killing
15:10 killing
15:13 darts Additionally the anaphoric from in
15:17 the fronted adverbials from me from thee
15:21 and from me emphasizes Love's insatiable
15:23 appetite creating a sense of
15:26 exploitation and
15:30 imbalance love only takes and never
15:33 gives the imbalance of power between the
15:36 pair is clear as the speaker debilitated
15:39 and weak physically and emotionally
15:41 drained by what this love is putting her
15:45 through is overcome with misery and
15:49 despair while the man remains aloof and
15:52 unfeeling a dart is another word for an
15:55 arrow and alludes once more to Cupid the
15:59 god of love it is however a killing Dart
16:02 it's not an arrow shot playfully to
16:04 inspire Mutual affection between
16:08 lovers but a Lethal Weapon designed to
16:14 suffering the speaker brings the poem to
16:18 a close by concluding that thus thou and
16:22 I the God have armed and set him up a
16:25 deity in other words the speaker and her
16:28 beloved have both provided love with the
16:30 weapons that have enabled him to become
16:32 a deity or an all powerful
16:35 God although they are both responsible
16:38 for this it is she however who is the sole
16:39 sole
16:43 victim but my poor Heart Alone is harmed
16:46 whilst thine the Victor is and
16:49 free this final contrast emphasizes the
16:52 speaker's suffering and emotional
16:54 vulnerability as she acknowledges that
16:56 while they both played a role in
17:00 empowering love only only she Bears the painful
17:01 painful
17:04 consequences her heart is wounded and
17:06 enslaved by the very Force they have
17:09 armed while her beloved remains
17:12 untouched the Victor and
17:15 free this Dynamic reinforces the
17:17 inequity in their relationship where
17:20 love is not mutual but instead leaves
17:23 the speaker trapped in emotional turmoil
17:25 while the Beloved escapes
17:28 unscathed the ending underscores the
17:30 parasitic nature of love where one
17:32 person gives and suffers while the other
17:35 benefits without sacrifice further
17:38 enhancing the poem's portrayal of love
17:40 in a man's world as a cruel and one-sided
17:48 Force thanks for watching if you have
17:50 any questions please let me know in the
17:53 comments section below and I'll do my
17:55 best to answer them don't forget to
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