I’ve always wanted to be in a romantic relationship. So when I read John Dryden’s poem, I see…I know now…Ah! How Sweet It Is to Love. John Dryden was a very well known neoclassical poet. Through this poem, we can find the subject and theme. It has definitely mesmerized me, for one!
Like he does in his other poems, John Dryden uses literary devices to show theme. For example, there is a regular rhythm in lines 5-6: “Pains of love be sweeter far, Than all other pleasures are.” This poem also includes rhyme. “Desire” and “fire”, “far” and “are”, and “blown” and “alone” are some examples of this. John Dryden even uses personification; “Love and Time with reverence use, Treat them like a parting friend.” He also says that love is like “spring-tides full and high, swells in every youthful vein.”
Songs normally tend to have a rhythm and rhyme. By putting rhyme in this poem, Dryden may have been saying that love is like a song. The rhythm in the poem gives the affect of a song. Usually people use songs to express emotions. From this we can see that deep emotions can be expressed through this poem. John Dryden uses the word “love” repeatedly, proving that that is the subject and main thing he is talking about. Using personification gives an affect and imagery of the topic, and feeling as if it was really there and you could see it. The author used similes to say things in a different way and give another example of it.
The words “Love” and “Time” are personified in this poem. John Dryden uses it like “Love and Time with reverence use, treat them like a parting friend…….for each year their price is more, and they less simple than before” (lines 13, 14, 17, and 18). The way John Dryden talks about these emotions is as if they were human and able to be talked to. He says to “treat them as a parting friend”, hinting that maybe they are gone now, or getting ready to leave. It might mean that what he loved is now gone, but still a friend and welcomed back.
The theme is straight away connected through the title. The word “sweet” is used to describe love. He calls it a “friend” as well. Love seems to have been a good experience for him. John Dryden also says that even though love is painful, the pain is sweet. Love is sweet enough to be worth the pain it brings.
Love, as you can tell, is the subject of this poem. The theme is that you should cherish love and not take it for granted. Lines 5-6 show that this is true. John Dryden is saying that love is painful but worth it. He gives examples of the theme throughout the poem, through things like literary device and style.
Works Cited
Rekha, et al. “Ah, How Sweet It Is To Love!” PoemHunter.com, John Dryden, 1 Jan. 2004, www.poemhunter.com/poem/ah-how-sweet-it-is-to-love-2/.
Dryden, John. “Ah, How Sweet It Is To Love Summary.” GradeSaver: Getting You the Grade, www.gradesaver.com/ah-how-sweet-it-is-to-love/study-guide/summary.