Love in Fragmented Lines: Analyzing Romantic Expression Across Eras

Abstract

This paper examines the evolution of romantic expression in poetry across different literary eras, highlighting how love has been represented through form, structure, and fragmentation. Love, as one of the most universal and enduring themes in literature, reflects not only personal emotions but also the cultural and philosophical contexts of each period. In Renaissance poetry, love is often idealized, celebrated through structured forms like the sonnet, as seen in the works of William Shakespeare and Edmund Spenser. “The metaphysical poets, such as John Donne, introduced intellectual paradoxes and conceits to explore the complexities of love, blending emotional depth with wit. Romantic poets, including John Keats and Percy Bysshe Shelley, shifted the focus to spontaneity, nature, and personal passion, using rich imagery and emotional intensity to depict both the ecstasy and transience of love. In contrast, modernist poets like T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound rejected traditional structures, using fragmentation, ambiguity, and irony to portray love in a world marked by disillusionment and alienation. Postmodern poets further deconstructed romantic ideals, experimenting with non-linearity, multiplicity of voices, and disrupted forms to capture the fractured, elusive nature of love in contemporary society. Through a comparative analysis of major poets and movements, the paper explores how fragmentation in poetic form mirrors the emotional complexity, contradictions, and impermanence of romantic relationships. By tracing love’s poetic journey from Renaissance harmony to postmodern disarray, the study reveals how poets across eras have continually redefined and reimagined romantic expression, reflecting the dynamic interplay between human emotions and cultural change.