Perhaps no other feeling is as prevalent in poetry as that of love. The simple word brings to mind images of romantic affection, lovers entwined in each other's arms, stolen sideways glances, whispered affectionate words, and an all-encompassing emotion that transcends the physical, an emotion that is experienced in all realms of being. However, in both life and poetry, the most joyful feelings of love are often accompanied by images of loss and anguish, a contrast that intensifies the imaginary experience. The fact that love exists more on a spiritual than physical level only serves to increase the difficult task of adequately describing it, for how can one articulate every aspect of such a wonderfully vague human emotion? Further complicating the development of these images is that for each reader, the experience of love and the images created by the lines are based on personal interpretation and are likely at least partially rooted in their own subjective experience of that feeling. The fact that this emotion can encompass such broad ranges of feelings ranging from pleasure, to physical attraction, to romantic intimacy, to the emotional bonds of platonic and familial love, only adds to the complexity of consistently defining emotion. love compared to other emotional states. In this essay I will compare the images of love created, and therefore defined, by Alfred Lord Tennyson in "The Lady of Shalott" and by Elizabeth Barrett Browning in "How do I Love Thee". ", his very existence seems to be defined by his love for the nameless "you". The image of love as a joyful transcendental metaphysical experience is created as he attempts to put words to this feeling. It begins with a sentence... al center of the paper… rooted in joy and beauty. As for an emotion that is believed to be enduring, powerful and joyous, Browning seems to articulate the image much more effectively than Tennyson from Portuguese 43: How do I love you?” Poems: Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 3rd ed. London: Chapman and Hall, 1856. Ed. Ian Lancashire : Pictorial interpretations of the Lady of Shallot." Victorian Web: Literature, History, and Culture in the Victorian Era. VictorianWeb.org. nd Web. 21 March 2012.Tennyson, Alfred Lord. "The Lady of Shalott." Alfred Lord Tennyson, In Memoriam. London: E.Moxon, 1850. Representative Poetry Online. Ian Lancashire Libraries March. 2012