Song

BY
LADY MARY WROTH
 Lady Mary Wroth (1587-1651)
o First female British writers to be popular/famous
o Belonged to a prominent literary family
o From a royal background and so had access to education via
private tutors
o Married to Sir Robert Wroth, who preferred hunting rather
than spending time with her
About the poem
o Written in 17th Century
oTheme(s): Relationship/power dynamics between men and women
Male dominance
Unrequited love and suffering
o Tone: advising/warning, straightforward
o Presents women (the poets) views about men
Men usually mistreated and dominated over women
- they almost made all decisions for themselves and women
o Conveys the lack of hope she holds in the emotion of love
 1st stanza
o Line 1
Metaphor: compares love to a child; visualises an image of a child crying
oLine 2: Inability of love to be a happy and joyful
as it keeps on demanding/wanting more and more from the lover.
o Line 3-4: Satisfaction brought about by love is temporary/short-term only
o You can never satisfy love
Women can never satisfy/truly please men
2nd stanza
o Line 5: You cannot measure how much men want because this is
endless
o Line 6: Folly=foolishness
Men just want to be fools forever
o Line 7: Men cannot be trusted because they always break promises
o Line 8: Advice from Lady Mary Wroth:
Women should not believe in mens words because they are liars and
cheaters
3rd stanza
o Further elaborates on her ideas in the previous stanza
(i.e. dont trust men)
o Line 11:
Vows - in the form of marriage vow
Men only make promises on false matter
o Line 12:
Cozen: trick/deceive
o Line 13-14: If women let men win in the game of love, women would fail
to be women
4th stanza
oLine 13:
Men are happy (triumph) when women are upset (wailing - you
make a long and loud cry when you are sad)
oLine 14: Men are the prime cause of womens failure
o Line 15-16:
Men can buy women gifts at most
But men would not help when women ask them to do them some
favours
5th stanza
o Simile: compares men as animals/objects
Feathers are firm in nature
Wolves are fierce in nature
Men are demanding and deceptive in love by nature
o The nature of men is difficult to change
o Again, the poet reiterates the advice of not spoiling men nor
believing in their words
To sum up, according to Lady Mary Wroth,
Love is/can be
o A never-ending list of demands/ demanding
o The inability to fulfil promises
o Deceptive and hopeless in nature
o Sadistic: joyful for one side and suffering for the other
Essay question
o
oWrite for around 150 words
o PEE structure