IGCSE Literature (0475) Study Notes: Aphra Behn, ‘Song: Love Armed’

Aphra Behn's ‘Song: Love Armed’ presents a striking, dramatic exploration of desire, unrequited passion, and emotional power dynamics. Rather than depicting love as gentle or purely romantic, Behn presents it through personification and martial imagery as a tyrannical conquering deity.

Studying this poem will help you analyse extended metaphor, examine how personification and contrast convey emotional suffering, and develop confident responses to poetic form and language (AO3).

Who Was Aphra Behn? (Context Check)

Aphra Behn (1640–1689) lived during the Restoration period in 17th-century England, an era marked by vibrant theatre and shifting social conventions.

  • Did you know? Aphra Behn was one of the first professional female writers in English, earning her living through her plays, poetry, and prose.
  • The poem ‘Song: Love Armed’ originally appeared as a lyrical song in her 1676 tragedy Abdelazer.

1. Summary and Core Meaning (AO1: Knowledge)

In this poem, the god of Love is depicted as an absolute monarch and conqueror who is armed by the interactions between two people—the speaker and the beloved.

Key Summary Points:
  1. Triumphant Monarch: Personified Love sits enthroned in triumph, surrounded by bleeding hearts and exercising 'Tyrannic power'.
  2. Jointly Arming the God: Both the beloved and the speaker contribute to Love's formidable weapons. The beloved provides the 'fire' through bright eyes, while the speaker provides the 'desire'.
  3. Unequal Outcome: Even though both lovers arm the deity, only the speaker suffers emotional ruin and torment, while the beloved remains untouched, triumphant, and free.

2. Structure and Form (AO3: Writer's Methods)

Form and Meter

Originally written as a theatrical lyric, the poem has a melodic, rhythmic cadence that contrasts sharply with the violent and painful emotions described.

Rhyme Scheme and Stanza Structure

  • The poem consists of two 8-line stanzas (16 lines total).
  • Behn employs an alternating rhyme scheme: ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH.
  • The steady, controlled structure mirrors the inescapable trap in which the speaker finds herself under Love's rule.

3. Key Themes (AO2: Understanding Themes)

Love as Tyranny and Conquest

The central extended metaphor portrays Love not as mutual affection, but as a despotic conqueror wielding absolute authority:

  • Love sits in 'fantastic triumph' while 'bleeding hearts around him flowed'.
  • The deity demonstrates 'Tyrannic power', underscoring the speaker's total helplessness in the grip of unrequited passion.

Inequality and Unrequited Love

A crucial dynamic in the poem is the contrast between how the two lovers experience passion:

  • Both lovers arm the god: "Thus thou and I, the God have arm'd".
  • However, the suffering falls entirely on the speaker: "But my poor Heart alone is harm'd, / Whilst thine the Victor is, and free."
  • This creates a sharp antithesis between captivity and freedom, vulnerability and emotional detachment.

4. Language and Poetic Devices (AO3: Response to Language)

A. Personification and Allegory

Personified Love is depicted as a cruel, weaponised deity who derives his arsenal from human emotions. Treating Love as an external sovereign emphasises the speaker's feeling of subjugation.

B. Antithesis and Complementary Imagery

Behn balances contrasting elements to show how desire is generated:

  • The beloved's eyes provide the spark ('fire'), while the speaker's receptive heart supplies the longing ('desire').
  • The contrast between the beloved who remains 'Victor' and 'free' versus the speaker whose 'poor Heart alone is harm'd'.

C. Martial Imagery

Words relating to weaponry, conquest, triumph, and harm emphasise that emotional attachment can feel like a destructive battlefield where only one party emerges unscathed.

5. Themes and Personal Response (AO2 & AO4)

Critical Considerations

  • The speaker recognises the shared creation of love's power yet endures solitary torment.
  • The poem captures the psychological complexity of attraction, showing how one can be complicit in empowering an emotion that ultimately causes personal harm.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • Mistake: Assuming both lovers suffer equally in the poem.
    Correction: The ending explicitly states that the speaker's heart alone is harmed, while the other lover remains free and victorious.
  • Mistake: Overlooking the song form.
    Correction: Discuss how the musical, tightly structured 8-line stanzas shape the dramatic delivery of the speaker's lament.

Final Key Takeaway: Aphra Behn’s ‘Song: Love Armed’ uses personification and martial imagery to dramatise the tyranny of unrequited love, showing how the speaker contributes to creating the very force that wounds her.