“Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part” - Michael Drayton

Hello friends,

I would like to share a poem with you which I studied during my graduation. The title of the poem is “Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part”. This poem is written by Michael Drayton.

Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era.

Since there's no help, come let us kiss and part.

Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;

And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,

That thus so cleanly I myself can free.

Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,

Be it not seen in either of our brows

That we one jot of former love retain.

Now at the last gasp of Love's latest breath,

When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies;

When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,

And Innocence is closing up his eyes-

Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,

From death to life thou might'st him yet recover!

Summary

‘Since there’s no help, come let us kiss, and part’ by Michael Drayton is a love poem that explores a speaker’s complex emotions for someone he cares for.

The speaker spends the first sections of the poem declaring that in the future, he and the person he loves are going to be nothing more than acquaintances. When they meet, their faces will reveal nothing of what used to pass between them. Their separation is final, he alludes, and he’s no longer going to love her like he used to. These lines are filled with determination that Love is tired and dead. But, by the end of the poem, it’s revealed that the speaker is still harboring emotions for her. If she’d like to, he concludes, he could reawaken his supposedly dead love. 

Detailed Analysis 

Lines 1-4 

Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part.

Nay, I have done, you get no more of me;

And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart,

That thus so cleanly I myself can free.

In the first lines of ‘Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,’ the speaker begins by asserting that he’s done trying to love someone. The intended listener, who he’s been trying to woo for many previous sonnets, has finally defeated him. He states that there’s no way their love is going to work, so they should “kiss and part.” He’s glad, he claims, that all this is over. He wants nothing else to do with her. 

But, his constant reiteration of the word “glad” and short, snippy statements feel as though he actually wants the opposite. He’s trying to pretend that he’s ready to give up on the relationship, but he’s really not. The thoughtful line “thus so cleanly I myself can free” ends the first quatrain. Here, he alludes to the fact that this relationship has been trapped in a way. Now that he’s giving up, he can be free again. 

Lines 5-8 

Shake hands for ever, cancel all our vows,

And when we meet at any time again,

Be it not seen in either of our brows

That we one jot of former love retain.

In the second quatrain, the speaker says that they should shake hands, part, and when they meet again, they shouldn’t retain any of the love they might’ve shared. In the future, they’ll be acquaintances and nothing more. It shouldn’t be seen in any of their “brows” that their “former love” exists at all. 

Lines 9-14 

Now at the last gasp of Love’s latest breath,

When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies;

When Faith is kneeling by his bed of death,

And Innocence is closing up his eyes—

Now, if thou wouldst, when all have given him over,

From death to life thou might’st him yet recover!

In the third and final quatrain, the speaker uses personification to depict their love falling apart. “Love’s latest breath” is gasping and his “pulse failing.” This is enhanced by the address to Passion and Faith. The speaker is clearly feeling emotional and trying to assert that the end is here. But, the turn between the twelfth and thirteenth lines reveals the truth of his emotions. 

He might want to be able to give up on her, but his love runs too deep. He reveals that if she wanted to, he’d be able to recover his love. That is, despite the fact that he just spent the previous twelve lines asserting that their love is completely dead. 

Structure and Form 

‘Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part’ by Michael Drayton is a fourteen-line poem that takes the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. This means that the lines follow a rhyme scheme of ABABCDCDEFEFGG. The rhymes are all quite consistent. Plus, the “turn” or volta is where it traditionally falls in these sonnets. That is, between the twelfth and thirteenth lines. Here, a transition is made between the speaker asserting that he’s done with his attempts at love with the intended listener and his admission that if she wanted, they could make it work. 

The poem is also written in iambic pentameter, the most common metrical pattern in the English language, as well as that which is usually used in sonnets. It means that each line contains five sets of two beats, the first of which is unstressed and the second of which is stressed. This creates a steady rhythm that has been said to mimic a heartbeat.

Literary Devices 

Throughout ‘Since there’s no help, come let us kiss and part,’ the poet makes use of several literary devices. These include but are not limited to: 

• Alliteration: the repetition of the same consonant sound at the beginning of words. For example, “cleanly” and “can” in line four and “Love’s latest” in line nine.

• Imagery: occurs when the poet uses especially interesting and evocative descriptions. For example, “Be it not seen in either of our brows / That we one jot of former love retain.”

• Personification: can be seen when the poet imbues something non-human with human characteristics. This could be an object, animal, or an intangible force. In this case, the speaker personifies “Love,” “Passion,” and “Faith.” 

Caesura: occurs when the poet uses a pause in a line. This might appear at the beginning, middle, or end. It’s created through the use of punctuation or a natural pause in the meter. For example, “And I am glad, yea glad with all my heart” and “When, his pulse failing, Passion speechless lies.”

 The goodbye kiss is always a painful event, but in some ways, it is a relief.  Drayton captures both those feelings in this sonnet.

In the first eight lines, Drayton appears to be quite relieved to be windup this relationship.  Basically, he says, "Since there's nothing we can do to stop this breakup, let's kiss, make an end of it. We will not see one another.  I'm happy to be free.  We can shake hands, and when we meet again, it'll be like we have no love left for one another. There will be no hint of it at all."  That sounds great, honestly.  But does it ever really happen that way? 

"I am glad, yea, glad with all my heart that thus so cleanly I myself can free."

From a modern point of view, we can say that it’s a happy moment to be free from the web of relations. But it seems that Drayton is trying hard to make himself understand that he is happy about the breakup.

 "Be it not seen in either of our brows that we one jot of former love retain."

Is it really possible to pretend that we don’t know a person with whom we were in relationship once upon a time.

The last six lines are at odds with the first eight. 

The first eight are the mind's explanation of the breakup.  

The last six lines are of the desperate hope that somehow love between them can be recovered. Maybe that last  goodbye kiss, could somehow regenerate that love again but is it possible or not that is doubtful. May be Drayton also has some doubt about it. Then also he hopes that some miracle might save love, because the parting is always unbearable.

References:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Drayton

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/44153