‘Love loves not those’ is dedicated to unrequited love. Love is personified in this sonnet as a character who is indifferent to the wants and needs of those who love or depend on it.
We all have the right not to love someone back. But being aware of that fact doesn’t make it easier for the one who’s doing the adoring.
In this sonnet, I depict unrequited Love as a colonist admiral – a sort of Walter Raleigh figure. My colonist admiral is egotistical, aloof, hungry for conquest. (I imagine most were.) Each quatrain depicts a different scene in Love’s conquering mission: the departure, the journey across the sea/ocean and arrival at another country. These stages are chronological. This is not necessary in a sonnet with narrative elements, but I find it rewarding to structure some sonnets this way.
The final couplet delivers advice to the admirer who, throughout the sonnet, is represented by adoring crowds, drowning sailors and smitten foes.
Love loves not those Love loves not those that flock to its parades: Whose glazed eyes scan the medals on its chest, Whose reaching arms form flimsy barricades, Who, when they’re waved away, think they are blessed. Love’s captain of a fleet – attack flag high Who will not change the course for drowning souls. Compassion signals flap at its blind eye; Distress won’t turn this ardent from its goals. Love casts off nagging burdens, then it leaps To conquer virgin lands and pastures new. It flinches not for smitten souls it reaps Whose flimsy fractured armour rusts with dew Narcissus Love needs reverence to thrive Refuse to fuel its fire, and you’ll survive.