Love and Friendship

Love and Friendship

BY EMILY BRONTË

Love is like the wild rose-briar,
 Friendship like the holly-tree— 
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms 
But which will bloom most constantly? 

The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring,
 Its summer blossoms scent the air; 
Yet wait till winter comes again 
And who will call the wild-briar fair? 

Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
 And deck thee with the holly’s sheen, 
That when December blights thy brow
 He still may leave thy garland green

Resources:http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180889
http://biology.missouristate.edu/herbarium/treesoncampus/website.htm
http://www.poetrygrrrl.com/love-and-friendship-by-emily-bronte/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv0POiylo1k

                    

         Holly-tree                             wild rose-briar

Mauren Lipman reading "Love and Friendship"

Analysis:
This poem uses similes to leave images in the reader's mind while they are reading this poem. This is the evidence from the poem "Love is like the wild rose-briar" and "Friendship like the holly-tree— ". This shows that the poet wanted to tell the reader the message about a comparison of love and friendship, by comparing this two and with the used of similes, that friendship is more important compared to love. In conclusion, the use of similes creates images in this poem which makes a deeper impression on the reader.

This poem also suggests that friendship is more important than love. It is the evidence from the poem that "The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms" and " But which will bloom most constantly?". This shows that the the poet is trying to tell the reader that although sometimes in one's life, love relationship might seen more beautiful and attractive than friendship, but in reality, love is fragile, and often friendship is more long lasting than love. In conclusion, friendship is more important than love.  

In the poem, it shows that love is sweet yet not long-lasting unlike friendship. It is evident in the poem that "The wild rose-briar is sweet in spring, Its summer blossoms scent the air; Yet wait till winter comes again And who will call the wild-briar fair?" This suggest that love is seasonal but not long lasting, unlike friendship. In conclusion, love is not as long lasting than friendship.

In the poem, the poet shows that she is looking down on love, and fully support friendship. It is the evident from the poem that "Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now. And deck thee with the holly’s sheen". The words "scorn" and "silly" were used make a bad sense of love, as both of the words have negative connotation. On the other hand, the word "sheen" has positive connotation. In conclusion, the poet does not like love as much as friendship.

Overall conclusion analysis - This poem is trying to compare love with friendship, with the used of similes as part of imagery. It is like a debate between these two, but lastly the friendship WON, as according to the poet, love is sweet yet short and just like seasonal, while friendship is long lasting and does not change over time.

Analysis Done by Nathan Ong Yan Jian