Extract
[...] Here, it is his own body, and his body in suffering that the poet describes. We also notice an alliteration in which reinforces each of the terms that describe Ronsard's physical state: "thoughtful", "tears", "blocked". And when Marie dies and Ronsard is left alone with his sorrow of love, the poet uses again the different elements of his body to describe the disease of love: 'And wretched, have only the earth, / Sighs in the mouth, and tears in the eyes'. [...]
[...] The various metaphors show the inner suffering of a being consumed by love. Love is no longer an elevated ideal or a source of spiritual fulfillment, but a destructive fire, an unyielding force that transforms the poet into a martyr. In this sense, Ronsard masterfully illustrates the idea that passion, when it becomes excessive, acts as a true disease of the soul, threatening the lover's balance. The slide into madness If love is often presented as a lovesickness under Ronsard's pen, it is often in the form of a mental illness. [...]
[...] The oxymoron is an interesting figure because it clearly highlights the paradoxical nature of lovesickness. The poet is both charmed by the beloved person. He is amazed by the charms of the young woman but on the other hand, love passion is a suffering, as its etymology also suggests. Love passion is notably a suffering because it may not be shared. The way the poet describes the effect of this poison is similar to a hypotypose. The poet shows the reader the harmful effects of love passion. [...]
[...] The beloved woman's gaze acts as arrows sent by the sun. The theme of the beloved woman's gaze is, in fact, a major theme in the demonstration of love sickness, as we could already notice in the poem "In a meadow I saw a naiad": "My reason was ill from her gaze". It is the beloved woman's gaze that is very often the initiator of love sickness." We also find this metaphor of the gaze of the beloved person acting like an arrow in the poem "Of this beautiful, sweet, honest chastity": "The trait that I received, did not have the pointed iron It was one of the sharpest that Love shoots into the soul10 ». [...]
[...] Love presents itself as a disease that affects the poet both in his body and in his mind. Part The Violence and Ambivalence of Love Passion The Violence of Love Passion Ronsard often uses powerful metaphors to describe the violence of love passion. It is thus that one can find in the poem 'Dedans un pré je vis une Naiade': « Like a lice of the frost bitten Languist to the ground, I've had my heart lowered, And in my fire I immolate myself5 » Notably in this excerpt, the poet describes himself, or his heart, as a 'lily', that is, as a flower, whereas the flower often represents the beloved young woman. [...]
