Love, Darkness and Wisdom in Irving Layton’s Love Poems.

Abstract

Irving Layton, an English poet of Canada cannot be considered a poet celebrating love. On the other hand, his love poems pave way for the realization of wisdom. Thus, Layton’s poems on love are exhibitive of the opposites accounting for tension which according to John Crowe Ransom is the factor that sustains the poetic impact in poetry. This tension is didactic in Layton’s love poetry, for it gives an expose to his feminism too as he transposes himself into the consciousness of the feminine mind in its expectations of love from its man. Simultaneously, the poet is convinced that true love is just an accident. Layton presents the two sides of Love- one is love as religion and the other is the state of lovelornness. This renders a man devoid of soul. Layton advocates further that infidelity on the part of women and self-deception in men are the two unsurmountable impediments in the realization of true love.