The sonnet( 61) 'Since There's No Help' is written by Michael Drayton. (Click On It ) Who is considered as one of the famous poet of Elizabethan Age after Shakespeare and Sidney. That can be seen in the structure of this sonnet as it follows the format of Shakespearean sonnet. This sonnet is the part of the book named Idea's Mirrors. Which was published in 1594. Here we shall see the general meaning of the poem.
The whole poem is centred around the theme of lovers' separation. Which can be seen in the title too. While reading the sonnet, we come across such words which follows the first person narrative techniques. Here one thing gets clear that it is the feeling of author/ narrator for his beloved.
Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part;
Nay, I have done, you get no more of me,
And I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart,
That thus so cleanly I myself can free;
In the very first quatrain poet says to his beloved that 'let's us kiss and part.' It means something has already happened in the past, which we don't know. What we know is that narrator and his beloved both are ready to depart. May be their future is not together. The lover shares his thought regarding his relationship with her. In addition, he is now glad to depart as that will make both of them free from everything. But the tone is full of melancholy.
Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,
And when we meet any time again,
Be it not seen in either of our brows
That we one jot of former love retain.
However, the next quatrain has some hope. Or we can say there's some indirect communication between them which only they can understand. Now, the narrator is ready to shake hands for the last time, probably before escorting her. Who tells his beloved to cancel all past vows. It means, lovers know that how past memories can affect them. So it is better to forget everything. Suddenly, there's certain change in tone as writer shows some hope for the future encounter. Again the lover tells his beloved that if they meet in future life, they will pretend as strangers. And for that he provides the reason also. Because, that can help them to reinvent their love for each other.
Now at the last gasp of love's latest breath,
When, his pulse failing, passion speechless lies,
When faith is kneeling by his bed of death,
And innocence is closing up his eyes,
Now if thou ( You) wouldst, when all have given him over,
From death to life thou mightst him yet recover.
The next stanza sounds more seducing. But with wooing intent. The lover tells his beloved that the love is almost dead now. There's no more passion. And he regrets that there's no trust, faith anymore in this relationship. Or we can say that their relationship is without soul now. As we have reached at the concluding part of the poem, similarly, the lover expresses his final words by telling his beloved that the retrieval of this relationship is in the hands of his beloved. Which makes his stand clear.
In conclusion we can say that the end of the poem is some how optimistic as the beloved doesn't answer anything. Which makes narrator hopeful to revive his love.
Rhyming Scheme : ABAB CDCD EFEF GG
Personifications : "Faith" is kneeling...
"Innocence" is closing...
Further Readings :
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