Reality and perception
In the poem "Porthalamion’’, one of the major themes presented here is the discrepancy between reality and perception. The narrator uses an example to make the reader understand better, choosing to tell the story of a man who talked ill of all women because a woman in his life wronged in. In the next stanza, the narrator urges the readers to be careful when hearing these types of obsolete tales, knowing how a description will not fit every person in this world. The narrator knows that some people will use their influence to harm others by damaging their reputation and so a wise reader should always be ready to question what he hears and to try and find the truth for himself. In this way, the discrepancy between reality and how a person perceived and interprets a certain event will be less significant.
Poetry and science
The major theme in the poem "To a Scientific Friend’’ represents the difference between science and poetry. There are two voices present in the poem, one for each side, presenting their arguments against the other and each trying to prove they are better and useful in comparison with the other. Poetry is described by the scientist as being useless and as having the power to bring someone further away from the truth while science is described as cold and as transforming Nature into something which appears to be untouchable and out of a person’s grasp. Each person criticizes the other harshly, trying to prove they are more important than the other. However, the narrator leaves the reader to draw his own conclusions, the question posed in the beginning remaining unanswered.
Women and society
In the poem "Young England’’, the narrator analyzes the way in which society changed over the years and how the people changed as well. Men are criticized first for their obsession with manhood and with their desire to promote violence. Then, the attention of the narrator changes to the women, who started to ask for the same rights as men. The women are criticized as well, their desire to be equal to men characterized as being unnatural and not becoming of women. The narrator would have liked women to remain the same, obedient and quiet, wives and mothers but nothing more. Still, this change is described as being unavoidable and thus not something which can be stopped. These changes are presented as being natural, despite the way in which many try to stop them from happening.
