Anger in Love : Love in Anger

How Anger Enhances Beauty

  Keats (Sketch by Charles Brown)

John Keats in his poem "Ode on Melancholy" says:

Or if thy mistress some rich anger shows,

       Emprison her soft hand, and let her rave,

               And feed deep, deep upon her peerless eyes.

She dwells with Beauty—Beauty that must die;

       And Joy, whose hand is ever at his lips

The most sensuous man, the man who could "burst Joy's grape against his palate fine," suggests that even if your beautiful mistress shows rich anger- now, why she would show a rich anger? - Either she is offended by your gestures and advances or you have tactlessly proposed her. Can a lady be ever offended by a proposal howsoever tactless it may be. No. So naturally poet thinks that being passionate and eager  some liberties were taken which offended lady, since no lady, especially the beautiful ones likes to be taken for granted.

Even then you must not be disappointed. Actually, that is the threshold of victory. If you surrender and apologize you will look down lifelong before her. You would be the joke she would tell in parties that how a little rebuke was enough to set you off.

So, go a step ahead, when discarded imprison her soft hand. Holding hand is one of the most acceptable form of romantic gesture. That is the territory, even for the noblest of lady. Imprisoning the hand is just one step further than holding the hand. It is a gesture in which you hold both of her hands in between your hands. It shows urgency, intimacy, persuasion, pleading and also thrust, power and authority.

When you are not discouraged by her rebuke and still go further and hold her hand tightly, she is taken aback. She is enraged and scorns at you in delirium.

Now look at her:

Her face is flushed. Her cheeks are crimson, and rest of her face has shades of pink up to her throat, her quivering earlobes are pink and translucent, her eyes are red with some pink threads, her voice is hoarse and husky as if groaning sub vocally, her body trembles and convulse every now and then, her breathing is heavy and uneven, and  her heaving bosom is rising and falling spasmodically.

What would you say- Is it anger or passion?

That is the beauty of it. The physical expressions of anger and passion are same. So if you don't succeed in arousing the passion arouse the anger and you would reap the same crop.

Now the context of these lines is melancholy. A feast on beauty is way out of melancholy.

Anger is an unconscious bargaining power. Most of the time beautiful girls pretend to be angry to enhance their bargaining power. They use it  to add little more fuel to the fire. It is an indirect message that she deserves a better treatment. If you do not reconcile some benefit or advantage would be denied to you. What is that? Your every guess would fail, and you would suffer a loss without ever knowing about it.

All beautiful and attractive women of the world have an idea of the this social leverage that God has bestowed on them.

Could I come near your beauty with my nails, I could set my ten commandments in your face. ~ Henry VI, Part Two by William Shakespeare

That's a catfight. A gentleman should always remain away and ignorant of it.

Tibetan scholars who were unable to find a rational argument about beauty have ultimately concluded that “for the poet, everything is beautiful” We can concede or deny the statement if you have a clear notion of what poetry is, and who is a poet?

 The sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso says:

The season of flowers is over

Bee, don’t be sad

My lover’s life is spent

I should not be sad

Beauty in the poetry sense is not sensuous, it moves from the real base of mind to the new realm that is the subject matter of the poetry.

This kind of beauty cannot be destroyed by place, time or condition.

That is why the poet exclaims “A thing of beauty is joy forever.”

In Alexander Pope's play "The rape of the Lock" Belinda a character based on Arabella , a prominent beauty queen of aristocratic society is subjected to such a rage, resentment and despair that she finds following to be a trifle compared to her agony.

Not youthful kings in battle seized alive,

Not scornful virgins who their charms survive,

Not ardent lovers robbed of all their bliss,

Not ancient ladies when refused a kiss...

E'er felt such rage, resentment and despair.

The Baron, who could manage to cut off a coveted lock of Belinda's hair though she had been warned since morning by good angels about the danger.

But when to mischief mortals bend their will,

How soon they find fit instrument of ill !!

Where there is will there is a way. Baron finds an accomplice who offers him a scissors to cut a lock of Belinda in the same way arms were offered to Knights departing for battlefields. Love is War.

Ariel "watched the ideas rising in her mind, and despite pretense of Belinda to the contrary found 'an earthly lover lurking at her heart'. Ariel was amazed and confused and found his power of protection has vanished and withdrew along with all his spirits.

The moment she has a weakness for Baron the good angels had to fly away.

That's true. Every beautiful woman is protected by good angels. They protect her from miscreants. Unless the woman has some soft corner for her paramour she is safe. You need to pursue a little harder and wait for the moment when she would be most vulnerable.

© Vipin Behari Goyal
Advocate, Rajasthan High Court, Jodhpur, India