The old cliché "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" is the foundation of "Love" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, as told by the narrator a story within a story about the perplexing idea of ​​love's ever-changing emotions that range from both extremes of joy and pain. The format of the poem, organized by Coleridge into 24 quatrains, makes it easier to witness the effect that the story the narrator tells his beloved has on his life. Coleridge's use of setting, word choice, and metaphors emphasize how this event changed the course of the narrator's life forever. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The first two quatrains are essential because Coleridge uses them to introduce the narrator and essential details about his opinion on love. Before actually recognizing his lover, the narrator defines what love is to create a basis for this tale. He describes it as "all thoughts, all passions, all delights" (line 1) which are nothing "but ministers of Love" (line 3). There are many words within these two lines that present a meaning, one of which is “everything”, nothing is omitted, everything is included, whether it is passionate jealousy or romantic delights. This is the way Coleridge implements the fact that love includes all forms of feeling, not just the noble ones. The second is that of “ministers”, presumably an omen to reveal the purpose of the anecdote that the narrator tells his love is evident later the second quatrain that what follows is a memory of “often in [his] waking dreams [he]/lives that happy hour again,/when halfway up the mountain [he] lay[s]/Beside the tower in ruins." From time to time he relives this certain memory because it makes him feel the same as he was at that moment. Lines 9 through 12, the narrator introduces his beloved Genevieve and the setting in which they both exist, one with “the moonlight” that was “mingled with the eve lights,” a very euphoric and romantic description. Her love enjoys when he sings the "songs that make her cry" (line 20). The narrator admits this desire and "plays a sweet, mournful air," which is a strange way of saying that he would do anything to make her happy. This is one of the songs that shows his love for her, a second is by defining how striking her physical features are to him, "he knew that [he] couldn't choose / But look at her face" (line 28). He begins to tell the story of the Knight and "who for ten long years he courted/The Lady of the Earth", which emphasizes how this story parallels his love for Genevieve. During this story, he "told her how he pined-" (line 33) and the narrator definitely identifies with the Knight as he writes "With whom I sang another's love, / Played my own" (lines 34- 35). It is important to note that the "K" in "Knight" is capitalized, it is most likely a metaphor for the narrator as he feels the same passion as the Knight, the intense love for another and doing anything for him, as mentioned later, “And that without knowing what he did, / he jumped into the midst of a murderous gang, / and saved from an outrage worse than death / the Lady of the Earth!” (lines 49-52). The Knight even went so far as to commit murder to save the woman he loved. From the narration we learn that the Knight is injured during the fight to save his love and she is trying to nurse him back to health, although he is mortally wounded. As the narrator tells Genevieve what the "words of his death" were (line 65), she stops 93-96).