Expressing Your Love

Voice 1

Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Colin Lowther.

Voice 2

And I’m Alice Irizarry. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.

Click here to follow along with this program on YouTube.

Voice 1

It is 1969, and a young Steven Stills has a broken heart. The woman that he loves is leaving him for someone else. He feels hopeless, trying to understand how the person he wants so much could be gone from his life. He is just a poor musician. He has little to offer her, nothing to bring her back. So, he does the only thing he knows how to do. Steven Stills writes a song.

Voice 2

The song, Suite: Judy Blue Eyes, did not bring back the woman that he loved.  Stills was not the first person to write a love song. Love songs like his have been sung for thousands of years. Expressing everything from the sadness of a lost love to the joy of new desire, these songs show that this longing for another is not new. Today’s Spotlight is on the world history of love songs and poetry.

Voice 1

People have created love songs since before the invention of writing. Songs, words, and stories were very important to ancient cultures. These cultures expressed themselves freely and openly. Some experts argue that these songs did not qualify as love songs. C.S. Lewis was an English writer. He once wrote that love poetry was less than a thousand years old. He suspected that love as we know it was invented by French poets in the eleventh century BCE.

Voice 2

But love was still an emotion that ancient humans felt. They may not have expressed their words in the same way that we do today. The feelings that brought them to sing would have been the same. Tim Hancock is a literature expert. In his story called The Chemistry of Love Poetry, he argues that this is because love is a physical experience ingrained in human nature.

Voice 3

“Poets recognize that love is a physical as well as a mental experience. This agrees with our growing understanding of love as a universal drive. Hunger hurts the stomach. The need for warmth causes us to shiver. Love shakes the heart.”

Voice 1

The oldest love poetry in the world seems to agree with Hancock’s ideas. This poem, The Love Song of Shu-Suen was written in two thousand BCE, in Sumeria. This ancient kingdom existed three thousand years ago in present day Iraq. But the things the Love Song’s writer speaks about are just like those a woman might feel today. She compares the one she desires to a lion, a large, strong cat. She sings:

Voice 4

You have captivated me,

of my own free will I will come to you.

Man, let me flee with you – into the bedroom.

Voice 2

The Love song of Shu-Suen’s author is very explicit about her physical desire for the one she loves. The words she uses are very simple. She does not have the art of a modern poet. But her openness shows that love of this kind existed long before the eleventh century.

Voice 1

The emotions behind all love poetry and songs may be the same. But the way that people write depends highly on the place and time. Ancient Chinese love poetry has a different quality than the ancient Sumerian Variety. Shu-Suen’s speaker tells her lover exactly what she wants from him. But Chinese poetry is not so direct. Du Fu was one of the greatest Chinese poets. His poem “At the World’s End,” is an amazing example.

Voice 5

Cold is the wind that rises

over this remote place.

Old friend, tell me,

When will a wild bird goose reach me here?

From the rivers and lakes

where the autumn waters are overflowing?

Voice 2

At first glance, Du Fu’s poem does not seem to be about love at all. But Du Fu was writing about love indirectly. In Chinese love poetry, some animals or events are symbolic. They have two or more meanings that the reader must understand. A wild goose is a kind of large bird. These birds mate for life, just like many humans do. So geese are symbolic of marriage, of long life together. When Du Fu asks if a wild goose will reach him, he is asking about companionship. He is in a place that is cold and lonely. He wishes for love to fly to him like a bird.

Voice 1

Many love poems are meant to be read. But most throughout history were spoken or sung. William Shakespeare was one of the greatest poets in the history of the English language. His poems were written to be spoken.

Voice 2

One of Shakespeare’s most famous poems is Sonnet Eighteen. In this poem, Shakespeare compares his love to a day in summer. He decides that, while he likes summer, he likes the person he loves better. She is just as beautiful and just as pleasant. But unlike a summer day, she does not change. To him, she will never fade.

Voice 1

Shakespeare’s Sonnet has a different quality to it than Du Fu or Shu-Suen’s. Shakespeare’s poem is very technical. It does not express the same desire as the ancient Sumerian poet. It does not have the same longing expressed in “At the World’s End.” But Shakespeare’s goal is the same. There is a person that he loves so much that he feels the need to speak to her. But this feeling is so big that he cannot speak to her in normal language. He must make her a thing of beauty that shows her own.

Voice 2

Today, love poetry is as different as the people on earth. Some people write using traditional forms. Some people write clearly, what they feel and what they think. Others feel that words are not enough. They make music that expresses their desire.

Voice 1

Experts do not always agree what purpose love poetry serves. Why have people developed this form of expression? What advantages does poetry give? These are all fair questions. But for those of us in the thick of love, this does not seem to matter. Love poetry exists because there are some feelings that are too big to leave hidden. But these feelings are also so overwhelming that one word does not do them justice. It has been that way longer than we can understand. Love is one experience that unites us, from now to the beginning of time.

Voice 2

Have you ever been in love? Did you feel the need to write about it? How did you express yourself? You can leave a comment on our website at www.spotlightenglish.com. You can also find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, Bluesky, and X. You can also get our programs delivered directly to your Android or Apple device through our free official Spotlight English app.

Voice 1

The writer was Dan Christmann. The producer was Michio Ozaki. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for this program and voiced by Spotlight. This program is called, ‘Expressing Your Love’.

Voice 2

We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye.

Question:  

Have you ever been in love? Did you feel the need to write about it? How did you express yourself?