This paper will consist in a comparison between two poems: “Lovesong”, by Ted Hughes, whose protagonists are a man and a woman; and “Mad Girl’s Lovesong”, by Sylvia Plath.

The first poem “Lovesong” will be divided to two parts:

- First Part will show how the man is, all that he looks at a relationship and the importance that he gives it.

- Second part will talk about her, the protagonist, and will be based on the same topics that will be reflected in the first part. At the same time, this feminine view will be compared with the second poem, “Mad Girl’s Lovesong”, and we will try to reflect the existing similitudes between both poems.

First Part

In this division we will talk about the interests that, according to the poet, the man has, all that the protagonist looks at a love, and, of course, all that he wants to get of it. We will observe his necessities and how he tries to fulfill them.

“His kisses sucked...tried to”

In this verse the poet manifests the yearnig of power, the protagonist wants to feel that he possesses all that he has. He tries to make someone’s life is not life unless you are there. This is an instinct that makes us similar to animals but also it makes us more human.

“He had no other appetite”

He just wants her to give him all, and this makes him complete not in a spiritual way but more passionate and more carnal, in short, and as we have said before, in the protagonist his instincts predominate.

“Her eyes... his elbows”

He needs to be useful, he wants to know if all that he has will make her happy, but there isn’t a sentimental involvement. I think that all is based in the necessity of having someone by your side. He needs to see the weakness in the other’s eyes, he wants to know if it’s true that she won’t need anything but the security that he gives her, and this makes him to feel good.

“He wanted...round her”

Time will stop when all his wishes come true: to feel her in hi arms, and become her into someone who needs all the he gives.

“His looks...horrible secrets”

She can see that he is concealing something that doesn’t want to reveal, but she doesn’t matter, she is with him, what can be more important than being in your lover’s arms?.

For him, she is not a special woman, in my point of view, she is his wish, that’s why the poet says “ghosts with horrible secrets” because when you love someone, your most terrible fear is to see that all that he wants is to get you.

“He showed her how to make a love-knot”

Here we prove what we were declaring before: he wants to feel himself useful, and also I will dare to say that there is some kind of superiority. He teaches his world to her and this make him stronger because he has in his hands someone who needs to see the world through an experienced eyes.

Second Part

As we said before, in this second part we will make a comparison between all that the woman, in the first poem, wants and all that the woman, in the second poem, feels.

“She bit him... and ever”

In this third verse of the first stanza of the poem “Lovesong”, the poet tells us what she wants: she needs to see him by her side. She is looking for security and she desires to stay with him forever, she does not want him just for a night.

Here we see that the protagonist gives a sentimental shade of meaning to this pasional meeting. She puts her feelings in the poem.

“ I shut my... inside my head”

In the first stanza of the second poem “Mad Girl’s Lovesong”, the poet shows us a desperate woman who has lost something or someone and she knows it will be difficult to recover. We can say that, in comparison with “Lovesong”, here the woman has lost the security that only a man can give her. In this first stanza we could see the despair and loneliness.

“Her embrace was an... into her bones”

She needs a man who can be part of her, and she will not be complete if he is not by her side.

“I dreamed that... inside my head”

We see how the second poem talks about despair. The protagonist needs someone who kisses her till madness.

In these two examples there is a necessity: we have the woman that has get what she wanted and she does not want to lose it, and on the other hand, we have another woman that would give her life if she could love someone. I think that in the second poem, the woman is not waiting for a lover to come back, she is still waiting for the lover who could drive her to the sky, and in this moment she is imagining how would it be, so here we have a desperate scream adressed to love.

“His smiles...never come”

This relationship is more than a sex night. She has all that she needs in this moment; he makes her dream on, this is a more sentimental involvement.

“I fancied you...head”

She wants to feel love, she does not remember his name, that’s why I think that he is only in her mind. She has never been able to love someone real, may be because she has never found someone who could give her all that she wanted.

“His whispers were whips and jackboots”

Although she knows that all that he gives can be painful, she can’t let him go. She knows that he will inflict pain on her but she doesn’t want to avoid it.

“God topples... drops dead”

In this stanza we also see how the woman identifies love with pain. These two are contradictory feelings but they are reals because when you loseyour love, all that surrounds you is pain and loneliness.

“I should... my head”

This last stanza is a sorrow chant. She is regretful because she has not get the security that she needs.

Human love is always unforeseeable, when you have lost it, you really don’t know if you will be able to love someone again.

Lovesong By Ted Hughes

He loved her and she loved him.
His kisses sucked out her whole past and future or tried to
He had no other appetite
She bit him she gnawed him she sucked
She wanted him complete inside her
Safe and sure forever and ever
Their little cries fluttered into the curtains

Her eyes wanted nothing to get away
Her looks nailed down his hands his wrists his elbows
He gripped her hard so that life
Should not drag her from that moment
He wanted all future to cease
He wanted to topple with his arms round her
Off that moment's brink and into nothing
Or everlasting or whatever there was
Her embrace was an immense press
To print him into her bones
His smiles were the garrets of a fairy palace
Where the real world would never come
Her smiles were spider bites
So he would lie still till she felt hungry
His words were occupying armies
Her laughs were an assassin's attempts
His looks were bullets daggers of revenge
His glances were ghosts in the corner with horrible secrets
His whispers were whips and jackboots
Her kisses were lawyers steadily writing
His caresses were the last hooks of a castaway
Her love-tricks were the grinding of locks
And their deep cries crawled over the floors
Like an animal dragging a great trap
His promises were the surgeon's gag
Her promises took the top off his skull
She would get a brooch made of it
His vows pulled out all her sinews
He showed her how to make a love-knot
Her vows put his eyes in formalin
At the back of her secret drawer
Their screams stuck in the wall

Their heads fell apart into sleep like the two halves
Of a lopped melon, but love is hard to stop

In their entwined sleep they exchanged arms and legs
In their dreams their brains took each other hostage

In the morning they wore each other's face

http://www.poemhunter.com/p/m/poem.asp?poet=6616&poem=30213

Mad Girl’s Lovesong by Sylvia Plath

"I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

http://www.angelfire.com/tn/plath/madgirl.html