Courtly Love

Introduction

Before analyzing the poems about fin’ amor, courtly love, I believe it is essential to know what it means. According to the dictionary, it defines as “a set of attitudes toward love that was strong in the Middle Ages. According to the ideal of courtly love, a knight or nobleman worshiped a woman of high birth, and his love for her inspired him to do great things on the battlefield and elsewhere. There was usually no physical relationship or marriage between them, however; the woman was usually married to another man” 1 Moreover, in troubadours poem, this theme is constantly brought up with different translation by Ezra Pound (uses very victorian poetic diction), W.D. Snodgrass (contains the weakest in translation, rhyme tends to be um-pah um-pah), and Robert Kehew (more or less academic project). While the verse forms of these poems are intricately written, courtly love is depicted clearly depicted in the poems. Every single behavior and aspects are saturated, objects and gestures plays a significant role. Interestingly, courtly love is quite romantic, in troubadour’s poem; his/her love is not tied to marriage. 

Analysis
A Love Afar – Jaufre Rudel

This poem is specifically referenced to the theme of courtly love. Rudel heavily romanticized – aspect of courtly love – the beloved because she is apart from him. The main repeated phrase “a love afar” inculcates a sense of loving being distant. The role of distance can be defined as his beloved not at present; however, dreams and idealizes his love being close in his imaginary world. Is the woman real? Nobody know actually knows about this. The word “afar” makes the distance of love and Rudel describes the nature of love although the story is most likely not to have any factual base. 

In second stanza, line 1-2, “My lord keeps faith, so I believe / That I shall see my love afar;” gives a sense of secureness and guaranties in love. Moreover, the distant love is not only described by “afar” but also “shall” is a future tense, which means he has not yet encountered the love. In the following stanza, line 2, “what joys must lie / Within love’s citadel, afar” here citadel is like a wall city that Rudel describes love is surrounded by it but still feel distance of love. This is why he questions what kind of joy and happiness will be like if the idealized love is within the citadel. 

Throughout the poem, he is constantly idealizing his love, which even gives a sense of whether he is aware of love or not. Moreover, the relationship between the devotee and the lover is crucial for courtly love. In this poem, the devotee, the man, his status is imperfect yet the lover is depicted as a divine and spiritually perfected. The devotee continuously praises, romanticizes, idealizes, and loves his beloved, which makes the love more afar.