When Raging Love with Extreme Pain - Henry Howard

 Introduction: Surrey in “When Raging Love with Extreme Pain” glorifies love. When he says ‘love’, certainly it is not only in terms of human-love but also in terms of metaphysical love which has the ability to transcend the material world to reach the world of cosmos or God. In fact, love is the basic human emotion. The poet says that the course of mortal love is not smooth. It always transforms a person affecting his day- to-day affairs, if he or she falls in love. The pains of love portrayed in the poem, by Surrey, using imageries and analogy exactly match to the central idea of it.

Discussion: In the first line of the poem itself, as the poet says love causes extreme pain to the lover. Metaphorically the pain kills the lover. The thought his lady love itself causes pain to the lover or the speaker of the poem and that “cruelly distrains” the heart of him. So, tears flow from his eyes like the “floods of rain” and the tears are the witnesses for his extreme love for the lady. This shows the intensity of love that the lover has for the lady. Symbolically, the heart (soul) of man is aching to mingle with God (super-soul) and so it always experiences a kind of transcendental pain in it. The lover in the poem, always thinks that the heavy sigh that he makes in the memory of his lady is a waste as there is only a little response that he elicits from the lady. Like this the soul of man elicits only a little response from the super-soul and so it makes a lot of sighs when it searches for the ways to attain the super-soul. The lover in the poem sighs heavily as if he on his death-bed. So, he urges the lady to accept his proposal before he die, heaving heavily. Like this the soul of man urges God to accept his little soul before he dies.

 

The lover or the speaker of the poem justifies his act of love by saying that it is an instinct which is common in all human beings. Even great historical happenings were taken place in order to win the hands of fair ladies. So, he quotes a very great happening, Trojan War which is told in the Greek mythology. The analogy to the Trojan War which was fought for winning the hands of Fair Lady Helen is apt when the poet states about the power of love and for which the pain that the lovers taken. The war was fought for winning the hands of Queen Helen who was the wife of Menelaus, King of Sparta. While explaining the greatness of Greek army and the war, the poet uses many images in similes and metaphors. The Greek had a biggest navy but it was defeated by the Paris of Troy, in the beginning. Hence the army chief, Agamemnon gave the blood of his daughter to the god war in order to appease his hunger. After that, the Greek army was able to march against the enemy.

 

In the course of ten years of Trojan War many incidents took place. So many brave soldiers died on both the sides. Many lords and kings from other nations came in support of both the sides were also killed during the war. Like this, many brave knights died during the course of war. However, in the end, King of Greek won the Trojan War and rescued Helen from the King of Troy. To win the fair Queen, the King had wasted ten years and had given up the lives of many who supported his cause. Hence, The Trojan War explicates that men are ready to war against any great force, either open or hidden, to win the hands of fair ladies.

 

Thus justifying his cause, the lover or the speaker of the poem says that Kings and many brave men gave their lives for the sake of winning the hands of fair ladies and so it is no wonder on his part as an ordinary man to make many attempts to win the hands of his fair lady. He is ready to suffer from the pain of love. He also considers that even if his entire life is needed to be spent on wooing the lady for his sake, he is ready to accept all such pains to win her. He is also ready to serve the lady throughout his life. Making the analogy to the Trojan War, the poet justifies his cause and says that he is not going to repent for his action of wooing the fair lady throughout his life to win her hands. He is ready to suffer because he thinks that sufferings give his heart the strength to endure the pain of love. The poet is hopeful that the lady will accept his love. The poet compares his love-pain to that of the cruel winter and his hope of winning lady to that of the spring season. In fact, plants endure the winter hoping that the season will change to spring soon. Like this, the poet is also ready to wait, , enduring the pain of love, for the lady to turn her heart towards him. The simile used in this part by the poet later used by the Romantic poet, Shelley who says, “If Winter comes can Spring be far behind?” in the poem,  “Ode to the West Wind”.

Conclusion: Thus, the poet, in this poem, justifies man’s emotions which is based on his basic instinct called love. ‘Love has the power to build and destroy any man or nation’ is the theme which is portrayed by the poet citing the analogy of the Trojan War. The similes such as winter and spring seasons used by the poet are apt when the theme of love is discussed in detail.