The poem 'Greater Love' by Wilfred Owen is a response to 'Before the Mirror' by Algernon Charles Swinburne. Before the Mirror is a poem that gradually changes its tone from sad to sadder. The poem is about a young girl that he's fallen in love with but that has deceived him by marrying someone else. Before he knew her he thought of her as a white rose in a red-rose garden, but it turned out that she wasn't so white after all. The words 'Snowdrops that plead for pardon' show that something happened that she's sorry for but that she can't change because she has been told to marry someone else. The hard East is compared to the institution that is forcing her to marry the man she's given. She's not pure and innocent anymore because she's been with someone else, the narrator of the poem.
Greater Love is also about love, but it takes a more sarcastic take on the whole notion of it. Owen's poem is much more war related and relates everything he says about being hurt by love to another level by comparing it to the much worse pains of war. Both poem mention the color red, which plays a big role in the development of the poem. Swinburne writes saying that the red-roses are the used ones, the one that aren't innocent anymore, that are full of love and seduction. Owen writes 'Red lips are not so red' taking a direct take on Swinburne's line: 'White rose in red rose-garden is not so white', and emphasizes on the fact that red is a color of seduction and lust, which isn't considered pure. The girl that Swinburne describes isn't pure anymore because her color starts resembling the color of the red roses. She has experiences life even though she might be better to him than any other woman.
The second phrase in Greater Love that relates directly to Before the Mirror is: ' And though your hand be pale, paler are all which trail your cross through flame and hail: weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not'. Swinburne wrote 'My hand, a fallen rose, lies snow-white, on white snows and takes no care'. Owen comments on the paleness by saying that your hand may be pale and that all that are paler have gone through hell putting shame on religion and your beliefs, and that you can cry about all that you've lost but that you may not touch what you've lost because you lost all right to. Swinburne is saying that his hand has fallen, that he's lost his love and hope and there's a notion of death in the tone.
The styles the poems are written in are similar, if not the same. Owen wrote a response to Swinburne, not to mock him, but to tell him about his own opinion, adopting Swinburne's structure and style of writing.
Greater Love is also about love, but it takes a more sarcastic take on the whole notion of it. Owen's poem is much more war related and relates everything he says about being hurt by love to another level by comparing it to the much worse pains of war. Both poem mention the color red, which plays a big role in the development of the poem. Swinburne writes saying that the red-roses are the used ones, the one that aren't innocent anymore, that are full of love and seduction. Owen writes 'Red lips are not so red' taking a direct take on Swinburne's line: 'White rose in red rose-garden is not so white', and emphasizes on the fact that red is a color of seduction and lust, which isn't considered pure. The girl that Swinburne describes isn't pure anymore because her color starts resembling the color of the red roses. She has experiences life even though she might be better to him than any other woman.
The second phrase in Greater Love that relates directly to Before the Mirror is: ' And though your hand be pale, paler are all which trail your cross through flame and hail: weep, you may weep, for you may touch them not'. Swinburne wrote 'My hand, a fallen rose, lies snow-white, on white snows and takes no care'. Owen comments on the paleness by saying that your hand may be pale and that all that are paler have gone through hell putting shame on religion and your beliefs, and that you can cry about all that you've lost but that you may not touch what you've lost because you lost all right to. Swinburne is saying that his hand has fallen, that he's lost his love and hope and there's a notion of death in the tone.
The styles the poems are written in are similar, if not the same. Owen wrote a response to Swinburne, not to mock him, but to tell him about his own opinion, adopting Swinburne's structure and style of writing.
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