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