Essay on Love in “Jar of Hearts” and “The Ways of Love”

Everyone experiences love, but how many react to it is different. Love consists of so many different experiences and ways to grasp its true meaning. Many different types of love exist, such as spurned lovers, or, perhaps a person who seeks to find love but loves one too many people. If everyone claims to have a separate perspective on love, then maybe the same is true with an author's way of expression through writing about such thing. In the song "Jar of Hearts” by Christina Perri, and the poem “The Ways of Love,” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, both authors write to form a central idea around love; with similarities regarding theme and use of meter and the use of difference in tone.  

Focusing on the themes of both the poem and song, it can be inferred that both works focus on the inevitable effects of love. The approach on view has many similarities. Mentioned in lines three to eleven; “Cause all that’s waiting is regret, and “.... tearing love apart,” (Perri line 2-10). respectively displays the choice to avoid pain rather than experimenting through love. The following lines reflects the part of her that created a resistance to love again. The difference between both the song and the poem is that the poem withholds an uplifting gratitude specifically in lines two through three when the author mentions, "I love thee to the depth and breadth and height, my souls can reach...”. (Browning line 2). Extinguishing between the two, it can be inferred that the substantial difference lies within the approach taken to describe feelings that relate to love.   

There are two common elements regarding both works, the use of meter to show similarities through experience. Both the poem and song express a time where difficulty was faced when the loss of someone, they loved became inevitable. In the song, lines four to five, “Lost the love I loved the most,” (Perri line 4-5) is an indication that the author had a love she once favorited even after previous relationships. So, the takeaway is the loss of the love was as pungent as the love was noteworthy.  In the poem, the author looks at the loss of love through a separate perspective. In line eleven by stating, “I love thee with the love I seemed to lose,” it can be inferred that he previously had a deep love at one time, and the likes of love would not be found again, yet it was. Both the poem and the song discuss losing love and use meter to in concern of lost lovers. 

In relation to tone, the song and poem reflect opposing images. In “Jar of Hearts,” a spurned lover sets out to refrain from providing second chances setting the tone. When compared to that of “The Ways of Love,” there is a very distinct difference. For example, at line three the author mentions, "My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight,” (Browning line 3). showing the authors optimism of mind and rebound ability. Whereas “Jar of Hearts” describes a substantially bitter mindset reflecting past love. The two are different in a way that one is optimistic and the other is pessimistic due to the inability of letting go of the past.  

Although “Jar of Hearts” and “The Ways of Love” are different in their tone, the central focus on theme and poetry elements are similar. The contrast between the two consist of a night and day difference. While the central theme of both works is relatively the same as far as effects of love, the subject of each differs. “The Way of Love” takes part in an optimistic world whereas “Jar of Hearts” undeniably leads you into the world of pessimism. Lastly, the use of meter to express feelings ties both together in a sense that one can find how both reflect the loss of love and its ability to affect two separate individuals similarly.