LOVE’S FAREWELL

Michael Drayton
Michael Drayton (1563-1631)
◦ Distinguished writer and poet in
Elizabethan England
◦ He worked for a wealthy
nobleman and fell in love with
his daughter, Anne.
◦ She married another man (of her
class) and Drayton never married
 Structure
Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
—Now if thou would’st, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou might’st him yet decover!
 There is no solution that will allow
them to stay together Go our separate ways
Break up
No, I am finished/
this is over

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,

—
Nay I have done, you get no more of me;
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
Repetition –
That thus so cleanly I myself can free; trying to
Clean break show how
No linger emotions and no determined
looking back he is
 Formal For eternity  Abandon/call off/ Promise/commitment/oath
Final eradicate

Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain. Forehead/temple/
facial expression

A very small amount Keep/possess/

Iota/shred/speck preserve/hold/maintain
 Personification
Alliteration Dying Love/relationship is
struggling to survive

Love
Now at the last gasp of love’s latest breath,
Personification
Faith in the
When his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
An intense
relationship is desire or
dying enthusiasm for
something
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocencePersonification
is closing up his eyes,
 When we have given up/
But, if you want the relationship is over
Signals a change in the poet’s
thoughts

—Now if thou would’st, when all have given him

over,
From death to life thou might’st him yet recover!
Love

There is hope for their

relationship Regain, retrieve,
The relationship can be reclaim, recapture
rekindled