On Revenge and Love

On Revenge And Love

Lettia Elizabeth Landon’s poem, “Revenge,” offers a sharp depiction of a scorned lover watching her beloved succumb to the wiles of another who does not care about him. Outside of the poem’s title, however, the poem’s opening suggests romance rather than vindictiveness. The narrator starts by elaborating the beauties of an unnamed woman, saying “Ay, gaze upon her rose-wreathed hair / And gaze upon her smile” (1-2). By repeating the word gaze, the narrator beseeches the reader to lose himself in the woman she describes. The repetition also emphasizes the physicality of this woman, as does the focus on her hair and smile. The stanza continues by pointing out “you drank the very air / Her breath perfumed the while” (3-4). Here the woman’s breath serves as an intoxicant, leading the reader to further lose himself in the woman.

Despite the beautiful descriptions, this stanza also foretells of the revenge that will later come through its perversion of romantic imagery. Roses and perfume are both nouns, yet the poem twists them into different forms. The rose transforms into ‘rose-wreathed,’ becoming an adjective and thus distorting its initial form in much the same way the narrator’s romance with the reader is distorted. Additionally, by wearing a wreath of roses of her head, the woman calls to mind Jesus’ Crown of Thorns. If the beauty of the rose is associated with love, then its thorns point to the pain love often entails. Later the word perfume twists into ‘perfumed,’ again perverting its traditional use. This perversion follows the pattern insinuated by the rest of the poem in that the narrator was rejected and prevented from beginning a traditional love story.

After establishing her failed venture into love, the narrator describes her delight at how her former lover will now experience what happened to her. In the penultimate stanza, she begins with “Go thou and watch her lightest sigh – / Thine own it will not be” (32-33). The significance of this quote lies in the word lightest. While the second line indicates the former lover will never be able to be with this beautiful woman romantically, the word lightest proposes she does not care for him in the slightest. Indeed, if he is not worth even a deep sigh, then he must not have much hope at winning her love. The narrator continues by insisting he “bask underneath her sunny eye / It will not turn on thee” (34-35). Once again she finds gladness in how another rejects him the way he rejected her. Interestingly, both of these couplets are commands, signifying that in her revenge, the narrator has gained more power to control her former lover than ever before.

The poem finishes by listing torture devices, each, in the narrator’s estimation, less powerful than the punishment of love. Indeed, “the rack, the chain, the wheel,” despite being well-known instruments for torture, each come across as weaker than the desperation of loving someone who does not love back (36).

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