Comparing ‘Love That Doth Reign and Live within My Thought’ with the Unseen - Dr. Helen Fisher’s ideas about love

The poem ‘Love That Doth Reign and Live within My Thought’ was written by Henry Howard, the son of the Duke of Norfolk who was executed for treason at the age of 30. It deals with themes of confusion of love, love itself, and death. He talks about a man being in love with a woman who does not return his feelings, this is also known as ‘courtly love’ and Henry was one of the first to introduce unrequited love as a main subject in the 16th century. The form of this poem is in a Shakespearean sonnet made up of 14 lines (3 quatrains followed by a final rhyming couplet) and is a translation of a Petrarchan sonnet. It follows the rhyme scheme ‘abab, cdcd’ and so forth, and uses inverted feet – this portrays the poem as quite masculine. Because this poem was written so long ago, there is a lot of archaic lexis and sophisticated language for example: ‘ire’ and ‘eke’ thus immediately showing the reader the time period that this poem was written in. The narrative stance of this poem is in 1st person, but mainly in the 3rd person – describing a knight.
The unseen text is written by a biological anthropologist named Helen Fisher, straight away this makes it apparent to the reader that this is a more analytical and scientific view of love. Both texts talk about love, however she talks more about lust and intimacy. In paragraph one she supports love and talks about the symptoms that occur with it, using declarative sentences “Love can start off with any of these 3 feelings”, whereas in paragraph two she talks about what happens when you fall in love, she starts off with an interrogative question, making the reader think “What happens when you fall in love?”. She uses a syndetic list “Intense energy, elation, mood swings, emotional dependence, separation anxiety, possessiveness, a pounding heart and craving are all central to this madness” which creates a sense of impact and makes love seem dramatic and crazy.
Fisher uses a lot of upbeat words to describe love such as ‘deep union’ ‘head over heels’ whereas Howard uses a lot of warlike imagery to describe love and the poem tone is very melancholic “And built his seat within my captive breast” almost as if love has him captured. The title of the poem ‘Love that doth reign…” suggests to the reader that love rules his life completely, furthermore the use of the conceit is an unusual image for a sonnet but it also suggests that love is a conqueror. The purpose of Howard’s poem was to complain about unrequited love which contrasts with Fishers text as she is raving about why people fall in love and doesn’t seem so bitter about it.
The most obvious difference between the two texts are the time periods. Back in the 16th century, love was more serious than it was when Helen Fisher wrote about it. She talks about love starting off with any of these three feelings: ‘lust… romantic attraction… and attachment’ which is quite different to how things worked in previous time periods – love happened quite slowly due to arranged marriages etc.