Category: Forms of Love

This ‘Forms of Love’ sonnet focuses on epithumia/epithumeō (desire); specifically, the desire for material things. Nietzsche announced the “death of god” in 1882. He followed this announcement with a series of questions, one of which was, “How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?” Well, the answer was already forming in the nineteenth century… Continue reading Forms of Love 4: Fellowship

This sonnet explores unrealised love – love that is felt emotionally but never physically. The metaphor I’ve created to represent this form of love is a “wildflower walk”: this is a journey, on foot, to collect wild flowers for a posy. The speaker recounts the story of such a walk, adding that they avoided plucking… Continue reading Forms of Love 3: Wildflower Walk

My interest in the Ancient Greek names for love was piqued by the contrast between the single word for this emotion in English and the several names for it in Greek. There are clearly many forms of love. So why is there only one word to denote multiple emotions? Or at least multiple flavours of… Continue reading Forms of Love 2: Uncivil Love

It’s ridiculous that there’s only one word for love: there are clearly many different forms of this emotion, all with different strengths and effects. The Ancient Greeks had a solution – different words for different types of love. Their list included ludus (playful love), pragma (longstanding love) and eros (sexual love). Although the length of… Continue reading Forms of Love 1: Pro Patria