Of the Theme of Love

Of the Theme of Love by Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle

This poem I liked a lot, because it’s comparing love to a plum tree, and that plum tree is the poet’s heart. I like how the language is, it uses imagery very well. I can picture this plum tree that poets’ pick bare for love, “And from thy branches every one takes some, of thy sweet fruit, which fancy feeds upon.” This poem makes me think of all these poets wanting to write about love, how wonderful or horrible it is, and there is a tree with so many love plums on it that they pick from. As each poet writes about love, the tree gets barer and barer, it’s like saying that they are taking advantage of love and as everyone does, the tree is dying, “But now thy tree is left so bare and poor.” This tree is a symbol of the poet’s heart, and it is hurting. Soon there will be no hope to find love. I think the poets’ picking the plums from the tree is ones that have broken the poet’s heart. I think the theme of this poem is that love can be rough. You could find love many times, but make it worth while. If you take love as something that is just a game, you don’t know what love is. Taking love as a treasure could bring you a lot of hard ache if it doesn’t work out, as it says “That they can hardly gather one plum more,” meaning they have been hurt by love so many times, they don’t know if they want to try and find love again. It hurts too much, and the heart or tree will not heal. I think this poem is very wonderful.